A Camping Trip with the Beast Warriors
by G'reth the Air Dragon
Summary: Rewritten version What happenes when my mom sends me to a camp in Colorado? The adventure of a lifetime and lots of trouble to go with it!
1. A Strange Beginning

**Hey guys! Yes, I know that you've read this chapter before, but please bear with me, as this is an edited version. The last one looked a little too choppy to me, so I had to edit it and change a few things. Now it seems a little more realistic as to what might actually happen in real life...at least, I hope so. /shrugs/ I hope that you enjoy this and the others that I've edited!**

Chapter 1: The Beginning

_Bebebebeep! Bebebebeep! Bebebebeep! Be—_

**Whack!**

"Mmf…grr…stupid alarm clock," I grumbled slowly as I buried my face into my pillow, my hand slipping off the _snooze_ button too dangle over the side. I really didn't want to wake up right now. And, after glancing up at the clock and flopping my head down in exhaustion, I _really_ wanted to toss the clock across the room and fall asleep for the next few hours. No one should have to get up at four o'clock on a Saturday.

I soon gave up trying to fall asleep and sat up, trying to figure out what I was forgetting. '_Why did mom want me to get up this early again?_' I wondered slowly, the gears in my head slowly starting to turn through the cobwebs still clogging up my brain. Seeing something black out of the corner of my tired eyes, I glanced over to my left and saw a suitcase lying unzipped in front of my closet. Standing next to it was a red and black backpack on wheels, a smaller backpack leaning against it with special notebooks and drawing paper.

A few seconds ticked by as I stared at the bags. My mind was a little slow in processing what the meaning of those bags were, but soon the gears started clicking faster and faster. Suddenly, it dawned on me.

'_Oh yeah, _camping…'

I remember now. My dad had signed me up to go camping so I would spend more time outdoors, meet new people, and basically stay away from my laptop during summer vacation. My mom had tried to talk him out of it, but it didn't go so well and he stuck with his decision. I was a little reluctant about the idea of camping, but the more I thought about it, the more interesting it all sounded.

Normally I'd be a little edgy to do something my dad signed me up for—_one such event occurring in my freshman year of high school_—, but there was something about this camp that seemed…different. Almost like there's something I have to do or someone I have to meet there…_gah,_ I hate it when I get that feeling. But other than that, there's only one pet peeve I have about this whole trip.

The camp is all the way in Colorado. I'd have to go by plane to reach it on time…alone.

I sighed softly for a moment before I started to twist my neck around, earning a few pops in response to the movement. After getting a few more pops out of that, I stood up and slowly popped the kinks out of my back before stumbling over to the closet. Once there, I snatched up some clothes that I hadn't packed yet and headed into the bathroom.

A few minutes passed with me struggling to get dressed and not fall asleep at the same time before I finally trudged back out, glaring at the empty space in front of me. I was dressed up in a pair of semi-dark blue jeans and a strawberry-red shirt that had a red/silver Chinese dragon made of various sized bedazzle gems embedded into the fabric. The shirt itself was a little girly, but I liked it because of the dragon.

Trotting heavily down the stairs in grey-tipped white socks, I saw my mom sitting at the table with a hot cup of coffee in her hands. Waiting on the table mat in front of my seat, a bowl and milk glass were sitting right where I had left them before I went to bed last night. Giving mom my normal greetings, I gathered the milk and Frosted Flakes and sat down to eat my breakfast.

"So, are you excited about going to camp?" mom asked after a few minutes of silence, grinning excitedly as she waited for my answer.

I looked up at her with a mouthful of cereal and grunted an affirmation. If I remembered to bring the camera, I could take a lot of pictures to show everyone when I got back. It would be nice to have something to remember everything I saw at camp. I'll worry about that later, though. Right now I have a tired and rather reluctant stomach to try and feed. '_Maybe I should have tried drinking a glass of water before eating,_' I thought dryly as I munched on some soggy flakes.

Once I finished eating what I could and washed my bowl, I walked over to the little candy dish sitting on a counter close to the stairs and dug around inside. When I withdrew my hand, I saw my tiger's eye necklace tangled up with my dragon necklace. Both of these were rather special because I had gotten them at the same time. Several things spoke out to me about them, like 1) I liked dragons and the necklace was in the shape of a Chinese dragon, and 2) I loved tiger's eye stones and thought that they were pretty lucky.

But now that I looked at them, I noticed something I never thought about when I first got them. They reminded me of all the images I had seen depicting a tiger battling against a powerful Chinese dragon. Two creatures of immense power representing the virtues of Yin-and-Yang: Good vs. Evil, Right vs. Wrong, etc. To me, instead of representing the symbol, the tiger is the embodiment of human courage and strength while the dragon is the spirit of wisdom and hope…

Dang, I _must_ be tired if I'm starting to notice odd things like that.

Shaking my head to clear it of any stray cobwebs, I set my mind to untangling the two necklaces from one another. Once that was accomplished, I walked back upstairs to gather what I might have missed while packing last night. I usually hate packing for trips because I have to wrack my brain for information about what I might need and what wasn't necessary, and then I find out that I had forgotten something once I'm either at the airport or already at my destination.

Nearly half an hour had passed before I deemed myself fully prepared. My suitcase was packed with my clothes, my bathing suit, spare towels, and other necessities while my backpack contained what I couldn't fit in the suitcase and other things I wanted to bring along. The smaller backpack was strapped to my back, my notebooks and drawing paper a familiar and comfortable weight on my shoulders.

I stood in my room for a little bit, memorizing the details of where everything was located and storing it away in my memory. It's funny how you seem to miss the room that you spent the least amount of time in during the day, not including sleep. At least I knew that it would be in the same state that I had left it when I got back. That's one thing I found comforting about the thought of leaving.

Otherwise it would tell me that 1) my parents were messing with my room—_which I doubt they would_—or 2) a crazy stalker or burglar broke into the house and went through my closet…

Before I knew it, it was time for us to leave as mom called me down. Heaving a heavy sigh, I grabbed the handles of both bags and moved to the door. I stood there and stared into the room for a moment longer before I walked out into the hallway, lugging one heavy bag and one light bag down the stairs. After getting a minor scolding from mom about trying to lift both bags at the same time—_and failing_—we went into the garage to the car. This was going to be my first time going someplace far from home without my parents, but at least I had my music, my notebooks, and my drawing utensils to compensate for some of the loneliness I felt.

'_I just hope that the camp is as good as it says it is in the brochures,_' I thought as I climbed into the front seat of the car, my bags tucked safely in the trunk while the smaller bag sat between my legs. Our dog Teddie, a rust-brown dog who was part-Chow and part-Border Collie, stood in the backseat as she panted her excitement of going out for a drive. '_I've never heard of a camp called __Camp Maxicon__ before._'

(_Scene Skip_)

"I want you to behave yourself at camp," mom told me as she stood in front of me, my bags beside me while Teddie watched me from inside the car. I could hear her whimpering for us to come back inside or to be let out. "I want you to make friends while you're there. Do the activities that they have available to you and follow your scoutmaster's instructions. And don't talk to any strangers. Once you arrive, there's a staff member of the camp waiting to pick you up. Do you remember his name?"

"Mr. Demarcus," I told her, feeling proud that I had forced myself to repeat that name until it had rooted itself into my memory.

"Very good," mom said before she continued on her verbiage streak. "Don't forget to call every once in a while so we can hear how you're doing, but call us when you get there. Your scoutmaster has assured us that if you want to talk to us or need us that you can call anytime. Don't spend all your time writing and drawing, or you won't make any friends. And-"

"Mom," I interrupted gently with a smile. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I promise."

She gave me a look that clearly said '_I know you will_' as she pulled me into another hug, this one much harder than the others as she said, "I know you will." Holding me out at arms-length, she nodded towards the double-doors and said excitedly, "Now, go have fun."

I nodded and grabbed both bags by the handlebars, turning to wave at Teddie and giving mom a goodbye hug and kiss before I walked through the doors. Almost as soon as I walked in, I was bombarded with a commotion that nearly stunned me out of my wits. Business people chatted on their phones to some client or another, people yakked at one another loud enough to wake the dead, little kids ran around screaming and playing around like monkeys while babies cried on their mother's shoulders, not to mention the mechanics of machines whirring and whining in the background of it all. The high ceiling and wide room only amplified the sounds by ten-fold!

The noise level was nearly overwhelming as I faltered slightly at the door. I gave my head a light shake before I pressed on, weaving in and around people and kids as they scurried about like rats. At one point I had passed by a boy with, oddly enough, untidy blond hair with black tips on each strand, but I didn't take the time to really look at him as I tried to find the gate to the plane.

A few minutes passed by before I finally managed to find the gate, waiting close to it so I wouldn't be caught in the rush. I had already dropped off my bags except for the little one, so those two will be on the plane when it arrives. There were quite a few people here, which made me wonder if they were camping out here instead of waiting at home for the plane to arrive. It felt like an hour had passed—which in reality it was only half that amount of time—before they made the announcement that the plane was now boarding. I handed my ticket to the lady and followed her instructions. Soon I found a seat in second class right next to a window.

'_Well, this ought to take a while,_' I thought slowly as I watched the ground beneath my window, watching for the luggage cart that would signal that our departure. I already had my seatbelt on since it was kind of a habit for me to put one on if it was there, so I didn't have to worry about forgetting it. Another few minutes passed before someone tapped my shoulder, a voice saying, "Hey, mind if I si-"

The owner of the voice didn't finish his sentence as I jumped up in shock, my seatbelt preventing me from hitting my head on the ceiling as I darted my head around to look at him with wide eyes. It was the same boy from before, the one with the unkempt gold-blond hair and black tips. He looked about the same age as me, although he was taller by a few inches. He had startling green eyes and a face covered with freckles around his cheeks, his mouth drawn out in a thin frown as he looked at me in confusion. "Sorry," I quickly apologized, looking at my hands in embarrassment. "I get startled easily sometimes…"

"Oh, that's okay. I know how that feeling," he replied cheerfully, causing me to look up and see him smiling. "So, anyway, mind if I sit here? The other seats are already taken."

I shook my head and gestured for him to sit, to which he obliged and looked back at me. I had already turned back to the window and continued watching for the luggage cart. "Not much of a talker, huh?" he asked curiously.

"Nope," I replied. "I hardly talk unless I feel like it's necessary or the topic is something I want to talk about."

"Ah…"

A few minutes of silence passed as we looked away from each other, the boy not really sure what to say before he turned back to me and said, "Hey, what's your name? Mine is Che—_I mean_—Chris!" he had a startled look on his face as he shook his head, causing me to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Chris. Chris. My name is Chris." With that established he looked at me and threw a lopsided grin, looking a little embarrassed for a moment.

I stared at him for a few seconds, noting how he had stopped himself from saying another name before I said, "My name is Lauren," I said softly as I offered him a small smile.

Right after I said that, the intercom suddenly turned on and the captain's voice started speaking. "_Attention passengers, this is your captain speaking. We are about to take off. Please get back in your seats and fasten your seatbelts. Turn off all electrical devices and remain seated. Thank you for choosing this airline and have a nice flight._'

"Wow, nice timing," I muttered as I checked my seatbelt and grabbed my little bag from the floor.

"Yeah," Chris replied as he grabbed his seatbelt and looked at them strangely. It was like he had never seen anything like them before in his life. "Er, this is my first time on a plane," he said uncertainly as he tried to fasten them. "What about you? Is this your first time?"

"No, not really," I responded as I watched him attempt to strap himself in. Twenty seconds later I was trying to help him untangle himself from the straps that wrapped around him like a boa constrictor. He looked like a mummy, except with straps. "Geez, that's some knot you tied. How'd you manage to tangle yourself so fast?"

"I fon't fow," Chris answered through the strap that was wrapped around his mouth.

I sighed as I finally got the strap loose enough for him to get it off of him before I took it and strapped him in myself. Chris looked at me sheepishly as he said, "Um…thanks."

I only nodded as we waited, the plane starting to move down the runway. I looked at Chris out of the corner of my eye and watched him. For his first time on a plane, he seemed pretty relaxed that we were moving. It's as if he's been in an aircraft before.

So then how did he not know how to put his seatbelt on?

"So, where are you going once we get to Colorado?" Chris asked suddenly, turning to look at me curiously. "I'm heading for a camp."

I raised an eyebrow in surprise before I said, "Really? I'm going to a camp, too."

We stared at one another in surprise for a second before Chris smiled and said, "Well, that's just a big coincidence. I'm heading for Camp Maxicon. Which one are you going to?"

I just stared at him in shock before I said, "I'm going to the same camp."

"Awesome. Who's picking you up?"

I had to think for a few seconds before I said, "Mr. Demarcus. What about you?"

Chris only shrugged as he put his arms behind his head like a pillow, the plane having gotten off the ground a few minutes ago as passengers started moving around again. "Oh, some scoutmaster's assistant," he muttered, sounding like he was talking about the most boring subject in the universe. "Want some advice on Mr. Demarcus?"

Curious, I nodded and watched as he peeked into the aisle and looked left and right, as if checking to see if anyone was listening in on us. Turning back to me, he whispered in a low tone, "Don't ask him about his eyes. He hates it when people ask him about them. Don't talk back to him or he'll leave you to fend for yourself in the middle of nowhere. Don't be late and don't goof off. He loses his temper a lot, and he doesn't tolerate slackers."

My eyes widened a bit in surprise as I looked at him. "Wow," I uttered slowly. "He sounds really harsh."

"He is," Chris replied with a slight shudder before he leaned forward with the back of his hand next to his mouth so he could whisper, "but just between you and me: I think he's a big softie on the inside. He may have been a soldier in the past, but he's really nice to you when there's nobody around to see him."

That sort of reassured me as I smiled at him, glancing out the window and watching the ground pass by _far_ below us. I wasn't even in Colorado yet and I had already made a new friend.

Maybe this camping trip won't be as boring and lonely as I thought it would be.

(_Scene Skip_)

"_Attention passengers, this is your captain speaking, we will be landing very shortly. Please return to your seats and buckle up. Turn off all electrical devices and enjoy the rest of the ride. Thank you for choosing this flight._"

"Huh," I muttered as I looked up at Chris from my notebooks. "That trip didn't take as long as I thought it would."

"Eh, could have gone faster," he replied with a shrug as he put away a small hand-held computer. It looked more high-tech than the other's I've seen before. I didn't dwell on it for long as I began putting away my books, taking care not to bend them as they slid in easily.

I didn't respond to that as we waited for the plane to land at the airport. Ten to fifteen minutes later we were walking towards the conveyer belt, chatting about small things that came to mind. As we waited for the bags to appear, I thought I caught something small and grey skittering across the floor, but it disappeared before I could get a better look at it.

"Hey, the bags are here," Chris told me and, sure enough, the bags started sliding out onto the conveyer belt. We waited patiently for ours to appear, other arrivals grabbing theirs on sight and walking off. I spotted my bags at the same time that Chris did, both of us reaching in and grabbing them off the moving line of luggage. "Well, guess this is goodbye for now," Chris said as he turned to me. "I'll see you at camp then?"

I nodded as I smiled at him. "I better see you there, or you're in trouble, mister," I joked lightly.

Chris laughed at that before he turned away, waving goodbye as he walked off. "I'll be sure to be there," he called over his shoulder.

I giggled slightly at that as I checked my bags, making sure that they hadn't been tampered with before I zipped the smaller bag on its bigger counter-part. Tossing it over my shoulders, I started walking towards the exit and-

"AAAA!! A _rat!!_"

My head snapped around in the direction of the screech as the culprit scuttled across the floor, skittering between some girl's feet. She screamed as she hopped from one foot to the other, wildly flapping her arms around like she was trying to fly. "Get it away! Get it away! GetitawaygetitawaygetitAWAY!!" she screeched in a high pitched voice.

All the while I was staring at her like she was an idiot. There was nothing wrong with being afraid of a mouse or a rat, I understand that. It's just that…

This "mouse" or "rat" was just a little wind-up toy.

Sighing, I headed over to her direction and asked, "You need help?"

"_Yes!!_" the girl shrieked as she leapt at me, my bag dropping from my shoulders in shock as she started shaking me wildly. I started to feel like a maraca as she shook me, all the while still hopping from one foot to the other as the mouse toy ran around her feet. "That _thing_ tried to _bite me!_ Kill it!"

"Fiiirrrssst oof aaalll, stooooop shaaakkiiinnnggg mmeeeee!" I said as she continued to shake me, my head snapping back and forth wildly. She stopped what she was doing and jumped on top of one of the chairs, trying to curl into herself and remain standing at the same time. Wobbling a little bit at the abuse my head just went through, I glared at her in annoyance as I tried to regain my senses. "Second of all, that's supposed to be a mouse, not a rat. And third," I paused for a moment to bend down and grab the toy mouse by the tail, lifting it up to show the wheels on the bottom. "It's just a toy."

The girl stared at the toy for a long time, looking like a fish out of water. Then, she started cackling with laughter, her tone high pitched as she snorted like a pig. I stared at her like she had just suggested breaking into a top-secret military base as I leaned away from her, still holding the mouse toy by the tail.

"I knew it was a fake the whole time," she snorted as she continued to laugh. "And you were freaking out over a simple toy? HAH!"

I stared at her with a dull, "_What are you talking about?_" glare.

"Hey," a voice piped up somewhere nearby. We both looked up and saw a girl standing there, her hands on her hips before she walked up to us. "It's not fair to blame someone else for a mistake you made."

Little Miss Freak-Out-Over-A-Plainly-Obvious-Toy made an indignant humph as she crossed her arms over her chest. "And I should care, _why?_" she asked in an obnoxious tone.

"You should care," the girl replied in an annoyed tone. "If you want to be treated fairly, then you should learn to treat others as equals."

The obnoxious girl gave another '_humph_' before she turned and walked away, a man following after her and struggling to carry all her bags at the same time. The girl that came to my rescue turned to me and asked, "You alright?"

I nodded and said, "Besides nearly getting my head shaken off, I'm fine." I pointed to the mouse toy and said, "I just don't know how she could have missed the fact that this thing had no legs and there was a mechanical '_whirl_' wherever it moved."

She nodded in agreement before she pointed at the mouse. "I was looking for that. One of my friends was missing it a while ago."

I handed it to her and said, "Here. Your friend might want it back."

"Thanks," she said as she put it in her pocket. "By the way, my name's Shannon. What's yours?"

"I'm Lauren," I replied softly.

She nodded in response as she turned around, waving over her shoulder as she said, "I guess I'll see you later then."

"Bye," I called after her. When she was out of sight, I sighed in relief. '_Okay then,_' I thought slowly, reaching down to grab my backpack from the floor. '_Now that I've got my bags and met a crazy person, I need to find Mr. Demarcus._' With that in mind, I headed towards the airport's exit.

Once outside, I looked around for any sign of the staff member, noting how there were a lot of other kids standing around. As I continued to look around, however, a man standing in front of a 2007 black jaguar caught my attention. His skin was a dark color, as if he had been in the sun for a long time, but there were light tiger-like stripes of pale skin that ran up and down his bare arms. He stood at around 6'10" and scowled at everyone that walked by him. His eyes, surprisingly, were a shocking yellow color with cat-like slits.

'_Must be colored contacts,_' I thought slowly as I walked over to him. When he spotted me, he gave me a cold stare, his pupils narrowing into even smaller slits. "Um…are you Mr. Demarcus?" I asked softly, feeling nervous all of a sudden.

He didn't respond for a few seconds before he nodded slightly, growling slowly, "Yes. And you must be Lauren, one of the students I'm supposed to pick up. Am I correct?" When I nodded, he snarled, "You're late."

My eyes widened in shock for a moment before I bowed my head. "I'm sorry," I told him. "It won't happen again."

We stood there for a long time, neither of us saying a word. I waited nervously for his instructions, not really sure what he was going to do. Suddenly, he reached over and grabbed my suitcase. I stared at him as he walked around to the back of the vehicle, placing the bag into the trunk. When he started to walk over to the driver's side, I took that as my cue to get in the car. I quickly got in the passenger's side and put my seatbelt on.

I remained silent as he drove out of the airport, my bag sitting in-between my legs and my hands in my lap. As the scenery passed by, I glanced at Mr. Demarcus out of the corner of my eyes. He was completely focused on the road, a scowl etched onto his face as he drove. It looked like he didn't want to be here at all.

There was a sudden movement in the back seat. When I turned my head around to look, I saw a boy around my age lying on his back, his arm draped limply across his chest. His short, ruby-red hair covering his eyes, his mouth opened slightly to reveal unusually sharp canines, and he had a hooked nose that reminded me of an eagle's beak. He looked rather peaceful in that position.

Until he started snoring _**really**_ loudly.

I stared at him in amazement before I turned back around, wondering how someone so young could sound like a snoring bear. I almost expected Mr. Demarcus to turn around and toss the kid out. What I _didn't_ expect him to do was produce an air-horn out of nowhere and point it close to the kid's head. My hands automatically shot up to my ears before he pressed the button and held it down.

_**HOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKK!**_

"AH!!" the kid screamed in shock before he landed on the floor. I kept my hands over my ears for a moment before deeming it safe to uncover them. I looked at the boy and stared at him as he laid there, stunned out of his wits and trying to regain his hearing.

A few seconds later he sat up and glared at Mr. Demarcus. "What was _that_ for?!" he yelled, or, with the tone of his voice, screeched.

Mr. Demarcus, instead of answering, he put the air-horn away and continued driving. He didn't even take his eyes off the road when he used it!

The kid just growled angrily as he slumped in his seats, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared at the back of Mr. Demarcus' seat. He stayed like that for a few seconds before he noticed my head turned slightly to watch him. "What are you looking at?" he snapped in annoyance.

"Quiet back there or you'll be walking the rest of the way to camp," Mr. Demarcus growled.

I turned my head back around and watched the road up ahead. I heard a low growl in the back seat, but I paid no heed to it. It was what the kid said next that made my blood freeze in my veins.

"I don't have to do anything you say!" he screeched angrily. "Nobody commands me! Not even _you!_"

The reaction was so quick that I only had time to grab onto my seat before Mr. Demarcus swerved off the road and onto the grass. The kid wasn't as lucky as he was sent flying and striking the door on the other side. Mr. Demarcus turned his head around to face the kid in the back, giving him the coldest glare in the in the history of glares. "If I have to pull this car onto the side of the road again, you'll walk all the way to the campsite with a broken leg," he growled slowly. "Do you understand?"

The kid, who was smart enough to keep his mouth shut, quickly nodded and moved away from the angry adult. I sat in my seat, too scared out of my wits to say anything. I didn't want Mr. Demarcus to lash out at me, and I certainly didn't want to walk to camp with a broken leg.

What kind of camp would hire a guy like him to pick up two kids?

(_Scene Skip_)

Over the few hours that we had been on the road, I had learned that the kid's name was Tarry when Mr. Demarcus had calmed down. After that happened, no-one said anything. That was fine.

It was a little while longer before the camp sign loomed over us. A wave of relief washed over me as Mr. Demarcus drove through, heading for the other cars that were there. When he parked the jaguar in a vacant lot, he turned to us and hissed slowly, "We've arrived. Get out of the car and I'll retrieve your luggage."

I followed his orders and unbuckled my seatbelt, getting out of the car without looking like a scared rabbit. Once outside, I went around to the back and accepted my bag from Mr. Demarcus, Tarry stretching out the kinks in his neck and back. Just as I was about to go to the scoutmaster's office, I bumped into someone very familiar.

"Oh, hey Chris," I said happily, feeling relieved to see a welcome face.

"Hey, Lauren," Chris replied, giving me a lopsided grin again. "Good to see that you made it here in one piece."

I rubbed my sore ears at that statement and said, "Say that again? My ears are a little sore from the air-horn blasts."

Chris only laughed at that as I smiled at him, feeling triumphant as I watched him. When he managed to smother his laughter, he asked, with some difficulty, "So, you goin' to see the scoutmasters?"

I raised an eyebrow at that. "There's more than one scoutmaster here?" I questioned him, suddenly confused. The brochure never said anything about there being two scoutmasters and my mom didn't even mention it.

"Yeah," he replied, sounding surprised. "Didn't you know?" When I shook my head in confusion, he shrugged. "Ah well. No big deal. But, just between you and me," he looked around again like he had on the plane and whispered, "Scoutmaster Michael is _really_ hard to impress and he's really hard on his scouts. Scoutmaster Jason is really nice though. He loves kids, but when they don't follow his orders, he'll go into lecture mode about how dangerous their actions were. He's great and all, but his lectures are enough to put you to sleep in nearly five nano—I mean, seconds."

I didn't pay attention to the correction he had made to himself as I stared past him, a sense of impending doom approaching as I pointed behind him. "Um, Chris? Wouldn't those two behind you be the scoutmasters?"

In an instant, Chris stiffened in fear, slowly turning his head around and staring fearfully up at the scoutmasters. Both of them were glaring at him sternly, one of them looking like he wanted nothing more than to punt Chris across the campgrounds while the other had his arms over his chest. Both looked more like military generals rather than scoutmasters at the moment.

"Chris," one of them said slowly. He had really beefy arms and broad shoulders, black hair, and a face that looked like it was carved from stone.

"He was just joking," I spoke up, causing Chris and the scoutmasters to turn to me. "It's my first time camping, and he wanted to make me feel more welcome here."

The scoutmasters said nothing for a long minute, looking at one another for a moment before they looked at us. Finally, the other scoutmaster, who looked less muscular than his counterpart and had purple hair instead, turned away with a huff. He was muttering something about, "_Annoying children and their emotions. Yesssss…_"

The other scoutmaster turned to me and said cheerfully, "So, shall we assign you a cabin? We might as well get you your schedule, too."

'_They have schedules here?_' I wondered to myself. Instead of voicing this, I only nodded shyly. As he turned away, I turned around and waved to Chris before following the scoutmaster—wait, Scoutmaster _Jason_—into his office to get my new schedule.

(_Point of View: Off_)

Tarry stood next to Chris as they silently watched Lauren disappear inside. "That girl had got to be the strangest thing I've ever met," he muttered slowly. He looked at Chris and asked, "Aren't girls supposed to be chatter-boxes and wear make-up?"

Chris merely shrugged as he brushed away from hair that got in his face. "I thought so, too. But she's different than the others. She acts more like a boy than a girl."

Tarry blinked rapidly for a few seconds before he narrowed his rust-brown eyes, gritting his teeth in irritation as he rubbed his forehead with two fingers. "The moment you think you have them figured out," he grumbled slowly as he glared at Chris, "that's when they do something _completely_ different that sends everything you thought you knew about them down the tube."

"Come on, bird-brain," Chris muttered as he glared back at Tarry before he turned around to look at the camp full of excited campers. "Humans aren't _that_ bad. In fact, they're actually quite amusing."

"Don't call me that, fur-ball," Tarry growled, turning around none-the-less to look at the camp.

"Who's a fur-ball?" a voice suddenly asked somewhere behind them as someone touched their shoulders.

"AAA!"

"AAA!"

Whirling around in shock, the two boys panted wildly as they stared at the culprit, who stared back in surprise at their reactions. "Whoops," the culprit, who turned out to be Lauren, said as she giggled nervously. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you two."

"Wh-Where'd you come from??" Chris demanded as he clutched his chest, trying to calm his speeding heart.

"The scoutmaster's office," she explained as she pointed behind her, Scoutmaster Jason standing in front of the office door and trying to stifle a laugh. "I have a bad habit of sneaking up on people, even when it's not on purpose."

"Man, I'd hate to challenge you to a game of hide-and-seek," Chris muttered as he straightened himself up. Tarry only glared at some random tree, acting as if he hadn't been scared out of his wits.

"Anyway," Lauren continued, holding up a piece of paper and smiling happily. "Guess what? We're cabin-buddies, Chris!"

"Sweet!" Chris exclaimed as he grabbed the paper, looking over the schedule with an excited grin that widened at each line he read. "And we've got the same activities. Double sweet!"

Tarry just stared at them as they chatted, as if he had no clue as to what either of them were saying. His stare turned into a mild glare as they walked away, heading straight for the cabins to drop off their stuff and go explore the campgrounds. He snorted as he turned away and muttered, "Girls. They're more trouble than they're worth.

_**CLONK!**_

Tarry collapsed in a heap as he landed face-first on the ground, a rather large lump on his head from the dictionary that had hit his head. The book came from the direction of Chris and Lauren. If one listened closely, they would have heard a soft giggle as the two walked away.

* * *

**Yes, I know that Tarry still got hit with a book. I just can't help it. I love to torture the guy!**

**Cheetor: You humans are really strange. /rubs the back of head nervously/ But you are pretty amazing with your courage.**

**Me: /grins/**


	2. Rock Climbing Disasters!

**My writing style is getting better and better, but there's always room for improvement. This one is pretty much a lot better than the previous one, but it's the next one I'm pleased about. Enjoy this for what it is and have as much fun reading it as I had writing all of these!**

Chapter 2: Rock Climbing Disasters!

(_Point of View on: Lauren_)

As I drifted up from under the blanket of sleep wrapped around my mind, I became aware of birds chirping their beautiful songs to the sun. Rays of light danced across my closed eyes through the blinded window, causing me to see reds and oranges replace the darkness. A hand suddenly touched my shoulder and gently shook me awake.

"Hey…hey, Lauren," someone whispered in my ear.

I blinked my eyes open and lifted my head off the pillow, staring up at the familiar face of Chris, my cabin-mate. "Good morning, sleepy-head," he grinned semi-cheerfully before he gave a yawn, covering it up with his fist. "First day of camp and already you want to sleep the day away?"

"Oh be quiet, you," I grumbled as I shook my head, sitting up and stretching out my arms like a cat. After that I began my morning ritual of popping the kinks out of my neck, fingers, back, and sometimes my legs.

"Ugh, 'ow can ya stand to do tha'?" someone above me complained, sounding completely disgusted at the sounds my stiff joints were making with each pop.

I glanced up at the top bunk. Another boy around my age stared down at me through red sunglasses, his gold bangs hanging slightly over his shades. Like Chris, the tips of each strand was dyed a dark blue shade. He was already dressed and ready for the day. Wrapped around his neck, his bet cobra, "Quick-Strike" as he called it, stared at me through oddly red, beady eyes. I've never really seen red eyes on a cobra before, but Jack—the kid who owns him—had told me that it was because he's a new species of cobra.

I didn't buy it at all, but I didn't comment on that. After all, I don't know _all_ the snakes in the world, so, who am I to judge?

"There are things that are even grosser than this, Jack," I told him as I stood up and reached into one of the drawers to grab some clothes. Once I got them I went behind a screen that the scoutmasters had given to the girls in each cabin.

"Sound's ta me lik' we got anotha Rampage," I heard Jack whisper to Chris. I have exceptional hearing, so I can hear quite a few things when I want to or not. "How's abou' we see wha' she'll do ta us if we provoke her, huh?"

I poked my head around the screen and grinned, saying in a sing-song voice, "I heard that, Jack."

"Eep!" he squeaked as he covered his mouth with his hands, his eyebrows shooting straight up into his hair while Chris and—oddly enough—the cobra laughed. Well, the snake actually made bobbing motions like he was laughing, but there was no real sound coming from him.

I just smiled at them before I ducked back, tying my last shoe on before I walked back out with my pajamas, all neatly folded. I dropped them into the drawer before grabbed my necklaces off the stand and put them in my pocket. Deeming myself ready, I walked over to the wooden door and walked outside, Chris and Jack trailing after me like puppies.

The sun was shining brightly in the sky as we walked across the campgrounds, other campers running around and having a good time in the sunshine. The air here was crisp and clean, mountains looming up behind the camp and trees rising high up into the sky. It was almost like a paradise of some sort.

"Hey, Lauren!"

I looked up from staring at the ground and smiled as Shannon came up, followed closely by _another_ boy, except this one seemed to be a little older. He had pale white skin, dark brown hair, emerald green eyes with flecks of light green here and there, and, surprisingly, light brown stripes of hair that crisscrossed in a tiger-like fashion.

If I even bothered liking boys as something other than friends, I'd have been all over him.

"Hey," I said to them as cheerfully as I could, which ended up sounding slightly high-pitched. "Who's your friend, Shannon?"

"Him?" she asked as she pointed to the boy in question. "Everyone calls him '_Stripes_', but his name is David."

"Huh, I can see where he got the nickname," I commented as I pointed to his hair. "He reminds me of a tiger."

Chris and the others slightly stiffened at the mention of that, but they quickly relaxed as Shannon said, "Yeah, yeah he does remind me of a tiger."

Deciding not to stick around anymore, Jack and his snake went ahead to the breakfast hall. He always reminded me of a western cowboy with the way he talked a lot…without the rattlesnake boots, of course. Chris turned to look at Shannon and said curiously, "You've already met Lauren?"

Shannon nodded and said, "Yeah. She rescued a girl from being '_attacked_'," she said this while raising her fingers and moving them to suggest quotation marks, "by a mouse. It turned out to be one of Danny's toys."

"Oh," Chris uttered, his mouth forming an 'o' shape.

"'_Oh_' nothing," I muttered as I rolled my eyes to the sky. "First she nearly knocked my head off shaking me like a maraca, _then_ she says that _I'm_ the one who was afraid of a toy mouse, and then I end up being late for Mr. Demarcus." When I got looks of horror from Shannon and Chris, I added, "He didn't do anything. He didn't even mention anything about it when I told him it wouldn't happen again."

They let out their held breaths and smiled before Shannon grabbed David and walked in the same direction Jack had disappeared to. "Well, we're heading to the cafeteria," she said as they walked away. "Don't be late you two."

I looked at Chris and raised an eyebrow. He just laughed for a moment before he calmed down. Still smiling at me, he tapped me on top of my head and said, "Tag, you're it!" then he ran off.

My body reacted before my mind had a chance to catch up with it, running after Chris as adrenaline began pumping through my veins. When Chris turned his head around to look back, he leapt up in shock and yelped before he picked up some speed, breezing past other kids like a yellow and red blur. I kept pace with him and continued the chase. He almost lost me a few times when he made twists and turns with inhuman grace, but I managed to get back on his tail. I could have sworn that we ran past the scoutmasters at one point, but I didn't really catch them and focused on Chris.

Ten seconds later I ducked behind one of the cabins, having figured out a way to catch him. Chris just kept on running like a scared rabbit, not even realizing that I wasn't chasing him anymore. As I stood there, I took deep gulps of air, trying to stop the burning sensation in my lungs and sides.

Now I had to wait…

'_Man, I haven't run this fast in a while,_' Chris thought to himself as he pumped his legs, his blood pounding in his ears and his heart thumping wildly in his chest. His lungs were burning for air, but he kept on running. He loved the feeling of the wind rushing by him, the heart-pounding excitement, and the feeling that he was flying. With each step he took, it felt like they lifted him off the ground until he could almost touch the sky before he came back to Earth.

He glanced over his shoulder, a wide grin on his face before it was replaced by one of confusion. He shifted his body back and dug his heels into the loose gravel, sending up a spray of dust and rock until he came to a full stop in the center of the camp. Confused, he began to look around for his running partner.

She was nowhere to be found.

"Lauren?" he called uncertainly. When he didn't get an answer, he scratched his head in utter confusion. "Where'd you go?"

"Behind you," a sudden voice spoke up behind him.

He snapped his head around so fast, that it was a miracle that it hadn't come off. Something poked his forehead and stayed there, making him blink for a second. Lauren stood there with her arm stretched out, her index finger poking his forehead as she smiled at him. "Tag," she said cheerfully. "You're it, Chris."

Chris just stared at her in dumbfounded amazement before he shook his head, Lauren's finger dropping to her side again as he asked, "W-Where did you come from?"

"Alabama," she replied, managing to keep a straight face as she said it before she cocked her head to the side. "Or do you mean just now?"

He could only stare at her for a few seconds before he burst out laughing, saying in-between gasps of breath, "Yo-You're j-just full-full of su-surprises!"

"Yes," another voice hissed behind Lauren, causing her to jump and spin around to face the speaker. "You are rather…unusual for a femme."

Chris recognized the kid to be Terry, another kid with almost the same name as the loudmouthed Tarry, but he was completely different. He had extremely pale skin, dark purple hair with yellow tips, poisonous green eyes that seemed to stare straight into your soul, and fang-like teeth that reminded Chris of a tarantula somewhat.

"It seems like you've met your match, fur-ball," Terry said to him before he looked at Lauren, narrowing his eyes at her as she glared at him. "But it must be embarrassing to shown up by a girl."

Lauren seemed to bristle a little bit as she asked slowly, "And what's wrong with being a girl?"

"Yes, what _is_ wrong with being a girl?" another voice asked as they put a hand on Terry's shoulder. "Think carefully before you answer, spider-boy."

Chris blinked in surprise when he recognized Alexis standing behind a suddenly nervous Terry. She also had pale skin like Terry, but it didn't look like she had been living in a cave for most of her life. Her hair was charcoal black that barely reached her ears, pure black eyes that seemed devoid of any emotion, and claw-like nails that were now digging into Terry's shoulder.

"Well?" she prompted, sounding impatient with him.

"I-I said n-nothing was wrong with g-girls," Terry replied nervously, managing to twist away from her grip and backing away slowly. "I-I only state wh-what I see!" With that he ran off, running into one of the large buildings.

There was a moment of silence as they stared after him, neither of them saying a word before they turned to each other. "Is he always like that?" Lauren asked in annoyance.

"Nah, he's usually worse," Alexis answered her before she turned away. "It might be a good idea to stay away from him. If you're not careful, he might just do something to you that you won't like."

Lauren stared at Alexis as she walked away, presumably to the Mess Hall. Then she turned to Chris and said, "Why'd he call you '_fur-ball_'? You're not a cat."

"Eh heh…" Chris uttered softly, smiling nervously. "Yeah, a cat. Funny."

"I wonder what we're doing today," she wondered as she walked away, Chris following her again as they passed other campers heading in the same direction.

"I heard someone say that we're going rock climbing in the mountains," Chris responded as they walked inside. The Mess Hall was filled with chattering kids chatting with their friends. "You ready for it?"

"I've never done it before," she responded uncertainly. "I'm a little nervous about it."

Chris smiled as he picked up his filled tray and walked over to a table, Lauren following after him. "Don't worry, I'll show you how it's done. It's easy," he said confidently. He took a bite of toast and smiled, some crumbs falling onto his plate. "I've done it plenty of times before."

"Okay," she said gratefully. "Thanks, Chris."

(_Point of View on: Lauren_)

"Okay, does everyone have all their gear?" Scoutmaster Jason called out as we stood at one of the trails that led up to the mountain. There were varied responses from the group. "Good. Let's move out."

At the front of the group was Scoutmaster Jason, followed by Shannon, David, Terry, an annoying friend of Chris's named Danny, the obnoxious girl I had met at the airport named Anna, another friend of Chris's that sounded and acted more like a medieval knight named Garen, Alexis, Chris and I. Anna, for some unknown reason beyond my comprehension, had suddenly started thinking that any boy I hung out with was her "boyfriend."

But other than that, if there was a contest for the most unusual group of kids, we'd have won it before it even started!

I felt nervous about this. I didn't mind heights that much, but there are some places that will make me nervous. Especially if the only thing holding you up is a rope connected to a stone surface that might come loose at any second. Chris seemed to notice my fear and put a hand on my shoulder. "Hey, don't worry," he said reassuringly. "I'll show you how to do it. You'll be climbing like a pro in no time!"

I watched him puff out his chest for a moment before I poked it, making him deflate like a balloon. It was a good thing we were in the back of the group, because we broke out into a fit of small chuckles as we followed after the others.

/_Later_/

"Okay, you put this here…then this here—"

"Eep! That tickles!" I yelped as Chris accidentally poked my side. He was trying to help me put on my gear, but he had poked me a few times in the process.

"Sorry," he said before he stepped back, checking to make sure that he had gotten every strap on tight. "There, it's very simple once you get the hang of it," he continued, giving me another lopsided grin.

I looked down at his handiwork and smiled up at him. "I feel much safer now, thank you," I said happily, causing him to blush slightly.

"Is everyone ready now?" Scoutmaster Jason asked as everyone gathered around him again, fully dressed in their gear and ready to go. When everyone gave their confirmations, he nodded and pointed to the rock face. "Find a starting spot and connect the ropes to your gear."

We did as we were told and waited for his signal. I was standing next to Chris, much to my relief, and Anna, much to my dismay. She had tried to shove me out of the way earlier to be in my spot, but Scoutmaster Jason had ordered her to find another spot if she was going to act like that. I hated the little witch, but I couldn't complain.

"Begin climbing," the scoutmaster ordered.

It seemed like a shotgun had gone off as everyone began climbing, moving quickly so we could be the first to the top. I kept a steady pace with Chris as we climbed up, finding hand and footholds to keep on going. I took Chris's advice and kept my eyes on the stone or the goal up ahead, refusing to look down at the ground.

"This is fun," I called to Chris, grabbing onto another handhold and pulling myself up higher. "It's not as hard as I thought."

"You said it," he replied. We didn't say anything else for the rest of the climb, only speaking every once in a while to exchange encouraging words to each other.

Ten or twenty minutes later, although it was hard to tell without my watch, we managed to make it to the top before anyone else and took off our cables. I was surprised, since it seemed like everyone was rushing to get to the top. But I didn't pay much mind to it as we stood a foot and a half away from the edge of the cliff, staring out at the scenery before us. If you haven't been to the top of a mountain before, even if it's just a cliff, then you're missing out on a truly amazing sight. Miles upon miles of forest spread out around the mountain, birds flying through the trees or gliding on thermals high in the air, and nothing but clear blue sky spreading like the ocean while clouds floated like islands across the vast sky.

"Oh," I breathed softly, completely spell-bound by the sight. "It's beautiful."

"Yeah," Chris said, looking at me with a gentle smile. "It's even more beautiful when you have a friend to share it with."

I smiled happily as we waited patiently for the others to arrive. The atmosphere was so calming, like nothing wrong could happen to us. I was a little disappointed that we'd have to leave soon, but I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my friend up here. It was just so beautiful here.

However, fate seemed to have other plans.

"Keep away from my _boy!_" Anna's voice shrieked before I felt hands push me from behind. I stumbled forward a few steps and spun around on my heel, facing the two and staring in fear at Anna. She had a demonic look in her eyes, grinning sadistically as she let out another snorting laugh. Chris looked shocked and fearful as he reached out to grab my hand. I reached out for him as I started to tilt backwards, feeling weightless from the lack of ground under me.

Chris's hand managed to close around my fingers, but since we had climbed up the cliff-side, our hands were sweaty. My fingers slipped through his hand and I fell. Everything seemed to go silent, time seeming to move in slow motion as Chris moved to the edge and desperately reached for me. "LAUREN!!" he called out.

I numbly reached out to him, my body seeming to freeze up as my body fell through the air. My mind seemed to stop working as I allowed my body to twist around so that I was facing the rapidly approaching ground. I could hear the shouts of the others, but their words didn't make any sense to me.

Suddenly, I felt something grab me from behind and hold me tightly, a sudden flash of light blinding me for a moment. Something _huge_ was holding onto me now, blue, white, and gold metal covering me like a shield before we crunched into some bushes. I hit the back of my head on something hard, like metal, only, it wasn't cold. It was actually warm. I didn't have time to think about it as we started to roll downhill, my savior holding me closer to protect me from getting hit with any debris.

After what seemed like an eternity of rolling, there was a sudden loud _splash!_ before I suddenly found myself underwater. The water was as cold as ice and soaked me to the bone as I was separated from whoever had saved me. Because the equipment on me was heavy, I began to sink deeper into the water. The water seemed to be deeper than I had thought, but it was better than hitting the bottom at a high speed. The fall and the water seemed to have drained my energy, my arms floating lazily upwards as I held what little air I had.

I cracked open my eyes a bit and saw a shadow moving over me, horns sticking out of the head as golden eyes glowed eerily at me. The form was distorted due to the water and the bright sunlight shining above, so it was hard to make out the details. The figure reached out and gently grabbed me, turning to face the surface and powerfully kicking their legs through the water.

My lungs were starting to burn now, the air I had been holding no longer able to sustain me as I covered my mouth and nose with my hand. Panic began to set in as my free hand clutched at my throat. I tried to hold what little breath I had left, but the panic was too much.

I breathed in…


	3. Is there a nurse in the house?

**This one I'm quite proud of. This is almost exactly what I had in mind when I first wrote this chapter (I just had a terrible way of describing it last time...). More description, more action, and a lot more questions unanswered! Have nothing else to say, so enjoy this as it is!**

**Chapter 3: Is there a nurse in the house?**

Darkness…

That's all I could see as I opened my eyes. Or at least, I _think_ I opened my eyes. It's hard to tell sometimes when you're in perpetual darkness. It covered me like a blanket, almost suffocating me.

Imagine that you're in a cave. Now imagine that there were no lights, not even a flashlight, to guide you through. Now imagine that you were underwater. The water pressing against your ears and muffling all sounds and slowing your movements to a snail's pace. That's what I'm experiencing.

As I allowed myself to drift, I listened to the surrounding darkness and wondered where I was. I looked down at where I thought my arm was…and blinked when I could actually see my arm. "_Wha?_" I wondered aloud as I raised my hand to my face, flexing my fingers experimentally. I looked around and saw only darkness before I looked down at the rest of my body. For some reason I could see my body, but I couldn't see anything else.

Strange, but nothing to really worry about…I hope.

Suddenly, the whole entire area was changed. I gasped in shock as I stared up at the grayish-purple walls that seemed to reach almost five stories high, wondering what this place was. I looked around and stared at a large glass window that caught my attention. Something was there, but what?

_ZZZZ—CRACK!!_

_**RAAAAWWRRR!!**_

I snapped my head around at the source of the roar. My heart almost stopped at the sight before me: a giant cage with electrical bars loomed overhead, wires running from strange machines I've never seen before and connecting to the cage's contents, and a massive form writhing in pain inside it.

The massive form inside the cage was much bigger than its cage, so its sides were touching the bars and causing arcs of electricity to shoot out. The air was polluted with the smell of burning flesh and fur, making it hard to breathe as the creature within roared with each electrical strike.

I turned away and gagged, covering my face with my hands to keep from breathing in the noxious fumes. Movement from behind the glass caught my attention, dark shadows moving behind the window. One of the giant shadows held something cupped in his hand, a thin ruby glow in place of their eyes, almost like a visor.

In an instant the figure vanished, the walls collapsing into darkness. I watched in awe as everything disappeared, leaving nothing but darkness as the electric cage fell away. But the creature remained, lying with its massive back facing me. I stared at it with wide eyes, numb with fear and dread. It looked like it was dead, smoke rising up from its fur and burned flesh as it laid there.

Suddenly, the creature moved! Powerful muscles rippled underneath its fur as it visibly struggled to get up. Its massive head slowly turned to face me and snarled, ivory fangs shining brilliantly in the darkness as fierce, glowing red eyes narrowed dangerously at me. Its pupils were so thin that they were nearly invisible against the blood-red iris. It looked like a giant tiger, but it had dark grey fur with bright red stripes, eight massive tails waving like flags behind it as a few of them struck the ground with enough force to reduce a mountain into pebbles. I thought I saw a stump of a tail hidden underneath some of them, but the tiger's gaze held me fast.

The massive beast turned around slowly, holding its left front paw to its chest as it dangled there. I stared up, up, up, _up_ at the creature, its height mind-bogglingly insane that it looked like it could touch the heavens with ease. It seemed to smile down at me, the corners of its mouth turning upwards in a frightening grin. I stared nervously up at those teeth, taking shaky breaths as my heart pounded loudly in my ears. I couldn't move. My body seemed to have been frozen in place; every breath that I took was painful to my lungs. I watched fearfully as it opened its mouth wide, slowly lowering its head, as if it was about to swallow me whole.

_**Ga-AAARRWWWRRRR!!**_

I was knocked backwards from the force of the cry, the monster having raised it head up to the heavens and screaming in a strangely feminine voice. It was almost like it was screaming in a part human and part beast. I watched as it continued to scream, tossing its head left and right as it stood on its hind legs. A bright light suddenly began to glow from its chest, spreading over its body as it screamed even louder.

Then, the glowing light detached itself from the creature, forming a tight orb of energy as the tiger stopped screaming. It was almost deafening, hearing all that ear-shattering roaring stop almost instantly. The light suddenly zoomed away into the darkness, a tiny bundle suddenly appearing out of the inky blackness as the light entered it. The tiger itself slowly began to collapse, crumpling like a rag doll as its tails flopped lifelessly to the ground. Its body struck the ground with one last shudder before everything grew still, its once blood-red eyes now dull and lifeless as they began to glaze over.

I couldn't speak. I was too stunned about what happened to form any words. A creature as big as this: dead in an instant. It was unbelievable. I turned to the small bundle as it floated down, glowing with the same radiance of the energy that had previously been covering the tiger. When it landed, a loud wail came from the center, the blanket wiggling around as the crying grew in volume. Cautiously, I walked over to the bundle, stepping around one of its huge tails as I continued on. My journey came to an end as I stood in front of it, leaning over the wriggling bundle and reaching to unwrap it. Inside was a squirming baby with a soft yellow covering its head, most likely a newborn.

Suddenly, the bundle vanished, almost like it wasn't there. I gasped in shock, looking at the spot the bundle had been before I turned to look at the large creature. Its body started to melt, dissolving into the ground as ripples started to form underneath it. It was gone in a matter of minutes, leaving me all alone once more.

_**Let…me…out…**_

"_Ah!_" I gasped in shock as I clutched my head, the voice resonating through my mind like gongs.

_**Let…me…OUT!**_

"_AAAAA—!_" I screeched in pain, falling to my knees as the voice grew in volume. I gasped for air as I stared at the ground beneath me, a sudden blood-like red aura appearing in place of the darkness. Slowly, the aura started to cover my legs, splitting up into several whip-like "tails" that rose up and wrapped around my body. The tails pinned my arms to my sides and wrapped around my neck, choking me as I struggled to breathe. "_C-Ch-Chris,_" I called out weakly, my vision swimming as the red energy tightening its grip on me.

"_Lauren,_" a familiar voice whispered softly, something lightly touching my cheek as the energy suddenly stopped trying to crush me. "_Lauren, don't leave me. Wake up. Please…wake up._"

I felt a familiar warmth spreading from the touch throughout my body, the constricting energy slowly, but surely loosening its grip around me as I relaxed. I no longer felt afraid. The tails started to unwind themselves, allowing my arms to rest at my sides as they sank into the ground and disappeared. Something touched my hand this time, squeezing gently while another hand touched my suddenly wet head.

"_Lauren,_" the voice repeated sadly, giving my hand another gentle squeeze. "_Wake up…please…_"

I gently squeezed back, receiving an echoing gasp of surprise before someone held me close. My ears suddenly popped, an array of sounds replacing the emptiness that I had experienced in that vision. I opened my eyes into painfully bright sunlight, blinking a few times to get used to the sudden change in light. I stared up and saw Chris looking down at me, a smile on his face as he hugged me tighter. "You're awake," he exclaimed happily as he touched his head against mine, most likely to either assure himself that I was still there.

"W-What happened?" I asked him hoarsely, sounding like I had been screaming for an hour straight before I coughed. I gave a slight shudder when a breeze blew by and suddenly chilled me to the bone.

"Anna pushed you off the cliff," Chris said in disgust as he lifted his head up, scrunching up his nose like a cat that had caught a whiff of something nasty. "She could have killed you by pulling a stunt like that! But, somehow, you managed to survive."

I stared at him and noticed that he was slightly damp. Had he landed in the river too? Before I could ask him, something red and shiny suddenly caught my attention, barely visible underneath his damp bangs. "Chris?" I started slowly, lifting a hand up and brushing away some of the hair and get a better look at it. "Did someone do face painting back at camp? You have something red on your forehead."

Chris stiffened suddenly before he jerked his head away, his eyes wide in shock as his hands shot up to cover the marking. I stared at him in confusion, sitting back on my hands as I watched him turn away. Curious, I touched his shoulder and gently turned him back around. "Chris? What's wrong?" I asked him, concern for him growing. When he didn't answer me, I said, "Please, tell me what's wrong. Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."

He didn't say anything for a few minutes. He opened his mouth a few times, as if he wanted to say something, but he couldn't get it out. I waited patiently for him, knowing that he'd tell me sooner or later.

Before I could react, however, someone suddenly grabbed me from behind and hugged me tightly. "Lauren!" I heard Shannon shout behind me as she tightened her grip. "You're alive! Oh, we were so worried about you!"

"Y-Yes," I managed to gasp out. "But do you _really _need to choke me to prove it?"

"Oh!" Shannon yelped as she loosened her grip, but she still kept a good grip on me. "I'm sorry. Are you alright? You're not hurt are you?"

"Er…not that I know of," I muttered slowly.

Shannon sighed in relief as the others suddenly started appearing around us. Scoutmaster Jason stood behind Shannon, holding Anna by the arm as she struggled in vain to escape. "We were worried about you," Scoutmaster Jason said as he tightened his grip on Anna's arm. "But at least you're safe now, and that's all that matters."

"Define '_we_'," someone muttered before a loud _thwack_ sounded off and caused them to yelp.

"Mind your manners," someone, most likely Garen, scolded them. I looked up and stared at them, Terry rubbing his head in pain as he glared at Garen, Danny trying hard not to crack up, and David shaking his head as he walked over and kneeled next to me.

"Are you alright?" he asked gently, looking rather concerned.

I couldn't help but smile and nod. "Yeah, I'm fine," I replied, brushing some wet hair that clung to my face like small tentacles away from my eyes. "Just a little shocked…and surprised that I came out of that unscathed."

David only nodded in agreement before he held out his hand, offering me a hand up. I gladly accepted the gesture and stood up. However, as soon as I stood on my left leg, I yelped in pain as I nearly crumpled to the ground. David had reacted quickly and managed to catch me before I landed. I started growling unconsciously in annoyance as I grumbled slowly, "_Stupid, slagging, no-good, _bloody-ankle!"

"Perhaps you caught your leg on something when you fell," Garen observed slowly as he grabbed my ankle and gave it a gentle squeeze, making me wince slightly as I tightened my grip on David's arm. "In any case we might as well take you to the camp nurse."

"Serves her right," Anna snorted. "She's a no good tramp with no taste in style."

"That's enough out of you, young lady," Scoutmaster Jason grunted before he turned to the others. "I want you kids to take her back to camp. I'm going to take Miss Anna here and call her parents. She'll be expelled immediately."

"_Expelled?!_" Anna screeched in shock as she tried to get her arm out of his grip. "You can't expel me! I've never been expelled from anywhere in my entire life! _She's_ the one you should expel!" She pointed to me as she said that.

"That's enough," the scoutmaster growled before he began leading her away. I didn't hear anything else from those two that wasn't unintelligible screeching (in which case, that would be Anna squealing like a pig).

When they were gone, Danny snorted as he asked, "And how are we suppose' ta do that wit' da kid's ankle? She can hardly walk!"

I don't know why he always calls me and Chris "kid". He's a kid himself for Primus' sake! But I bit back a snappy remark and waited for someone to say something.

Garen seemed to have the situation covered already as he walked over, reached down and picked me up bridal style. I yelped at the sudden movement as I grabbed onto his neck to keep from falling backwards. "I shall carry her to camp," he said chivalrously, sounding like a knight that had just saved his princess from a dragon.

I glared at the others with a look that told them I didn't enjoy this one bit. They just shrugged and grinned as Garen started walking in the same direction that Scoutmaster Jason and Anna had walked in.

(_Later_)

"Leapin' _reptiles!_" Jack shouted. "What in tarnation happen' ta ya?"

I glared at him as we walked passed him. Well, Chris and the others walked. I simply got a ride from Garen. I was a little moody that I had to be carried like this, even though my ankle felt a lot better than before. But none of them would allow me to even _limp_ for a short distance.

"Anna pushed her off a cliff and she fell into a river," Chris explained simply. "She broke her ankle, so we're taking her to the nurse."

I glared at Chris and hissed, "Chris, I told you before that my ankle is _not_ broken!"

Chris stepped away from me as the others went their separate ways, his hands up in defense. "Okay, okay, but we still need to have the nurse check it out. Scoutmaster Jason would have made us do it anyway."

I slumped a little as Garen continued to walk towards the nurse's office. I was still angry about it, but I knew it was true. I'd be concerned if someone fell off a cliff and managed to survive to tell the tale. As we entered the building, Garen set me on one of those paper covered pads that you normally see at the doctor's office. We only waited for less than a minute before the nurse came in. I was almost shocked out of my wits, but kept still so as to not alert the boys.

I had thought that all nurses were females and all doctors were either male or female. But when the nurse appeared, it turned out to be a man! I never would have expected the possibility of it, but I guess he'd have to know what he was doing if he's a nurse. It's most likely that the surprises won't end with this guy, so I'd better be prepared for the next one…

"Alright then," the nurse began as he grabbed a _huge_ chair and sat down, the chair creaking under the weight of his muscles. He looked like an African or Asian wrestling champion sitting there. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Broken ankle," Chris supplied before he ducked out of the way of my swipe. "Fell off a cliff and landed in a river."

"Aa-choo!" I sneezed unexpectedly, rubbing my painfully burning nose while my body shivered a bit under the AC.

"…and a cold," Garen continued as he grabbed a blanket from a nearby bench and wrapped it around me. I clutched at it gratefully and huddled underneath it. Apparently my little dip in the river and the cold breezes made me catch a cold.

The nurse raised an eyebrow at this before he shook his head, pulling a pen and clip-board out of nowhere and scribbling down a few things. A moment of silence passed as he scribbled whatever notes he was taking before he glanced up, apparently noticing how the boys were practically leaning over his shoulders to see what he was writing…and he didn't seem to like it one bit. "Either you three go outside and wait patiently like good little scouts, or I'll kick you out myself," he rumbled slowly in irritation. "And I _won't_ hold back."

The guys seemed to get the message and scrambled out the door, somehow managing to get stuck when they tried exiting at the same time before they shot through. A few crashes and thumps told us that they had made it to the other side before the door shut. The nurse nodded as he finished writing down his notes and looked up at me with a gentle smile. "There, now that the boys aren't here to fuss or worry, I can properly examine your ankle."

I shrugged at that and muttered, "Boys will be boys."

He gave a low rumble of laughter as he reached down and gently squeezed my ankle, causing me to hiss slightly when pain shot through it. "It doesn't feel broken at all," he said softly before he scribbled down more notes. "It's only sprained. You'll still have to stay off it for a few weeks, and you need to stay indoors so that cold doesn't get any worse than it is."

I only nodded and waited as he wrapped my foot up in a cast, to "prevent irritation to the sprain", as the nurse put it. Once that was done, he allowed me to hold onto his arm as I limped on one leg and dragged the other and took me outside. I still had the blanket around me, so I was pretty warm. When we stepped outside, we found that Chris, Scoutmaster Jason, Scoutmaster Michael, even Mr. Demarcus were standing there waiting for us.

Chris immediately perked up and ran over, stopping in front of us with a relieved look on his face. The mark on his forehead was gone now, as if it had never been there in the first place. "Hey," he said excitedly. "How do you feel?"

I held up my finger as I stood there, Chris staring at me in confusion as we waited. Ten seconds passed before I opened my mouth to say something…

"ACHOO!" I sneezed again, making sure that I turned my head away from him and anyone else in my way. Sniffling, I rubbed my nose and said to a startled Chris, "Bedder dan I soung."

Chris laughed for a moment before he said, "Everyone's really worried about you—," an inaudible cough came from Scoutmaster Michael, but I dismissed it as a normal cough, "—and wanted to make sure you're alright. Plus, Anna's no longer here. She was sent out as soon as Scoutmaster Jason called her parents!"

I sighed in relief and said, "That's good. But the next time we go mountain climbing, remind me to bring an attack friend."

"Attack friend?" he asked curiously. "What's that?"

"A friend who attacks people in random ways," I answered with a shrug. "A lot less violent than an attack dog, but just as terrifying."

He just laughed at that and said, "You are the strangest girl I have _ever_ met."

Before I could reply to that, Scoutmaster Jason walked over to us and said, "Chris, why don't you take her back to the cabin? I'm pretty sure you both need a good rest after what happened today, but I would like to see you later on, Chris."

"Yes sir," Chris said before he turned and offered his arm to me. "May I have the honor of escorting you to yonder castle?"

Smiling, I accepted his generous gesture and played along. "You may, Sir Knight. Thou art a gentleman," I said in a corny princess accent, causing the others to raise an eyebrow at that.

"Come, princess," Chris barely managed to say through a snort of laughter as we began walking—limping, in my case. "Let us journey past these unworthy abodes and make our way to the castle."

I couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing, Chris joining me a few seconds later. We ignored the looks that everyone gave us behind our backs and laughed our little heads off. For some reason, my friends and I always manage to find a way to make some things seem sillier than they are. But that's fine.

It shows that we know how to have fun!

_-The Next Day-_

When I woke up the next morning, I noticed something odd: I could breathe. Normally it's not that strange, but when you get a cold just yesterday and have had an _extremely _hard time breathing that night, it's highly unusual. I also noticed that my leg felt numb, like I had slept with it in the wrong position. The fact is, I kept it perched on a pillow at the end so that I wouldn't agitate it in any way.

Now it just feels like my leg's under attack with the _icy-needles-of-annoying-sensations_ syndrome.

Grumbling in annoyance, I wiggled my leg around as much as I could with that stupid cast on. Once the pin-pricking sensations went away, I sat up and glared at the space in front of me. I could hear Chris snoring softly in the background while Jack—

_Snort! Giggle…_

…I don't even want to know what he's dreaming of. Sighing, I swung my legs over the side of the bed, temporarily forgetting about the cast and—

_Thunk!_

"Eep!" I yelped in shock as I realized my blunder, raising my shoulders and biting my lip as I waited for the sudden pain to shoot up like wildfire. Only…it _didn't._ I opened one eye cautiously, staring at the cast for a few seconds before I perked up a little more. "What the-?" I wondered softly, raising my leg with the cast up to stare at it. I started lightly knocking close to where my ankle was hidden, increasing the amount of force to see if I'd feel any pain or another before I stopped.

No pain whatsoever.

'_Oookay, this is getting weird,_' I thought as I set it down again. A idea suddenly popped up in my mind as I looked at the floor, juggling the idea in my head as well as the pros and the cons of doing such a thing. The cons seemed to outweigh the pros, but the idea was even more insistent than before.

…_Meh,_ what the hay?

Carefully, I put my hand on the side-table for leverage, bracing myself before I pushed off…and stood on both feet.

My eyebrows shot up at the sudden uneven foot-balance due to the cast, but I was even more surprised to find that I wasn't feeling anything. I was standing on my sprained ankle, and yet, I wasn't feeling any pain. "Whoa," I breathed softly, stunned and amazed at the same time. I let go of the stand and took a few waddling steps forward, careful not to move too fast or throw myself off balance. A smile broke out on my face, threatening to tear my face in half as excitement curled up in my heart.

Too bad it was short lived…

"Lauren?" I heard Chris's sleepy voice call out as I turned to look at him. He rubbed his eyes for a moment and stared at me, the gears in his head clearly turning as he tried to figure out why I was a few feet away from the bed and on my "injured" leg. I could have sworn that I could hear some wires starting to come alive, one or two of them short-circuiting as his eyes slowly widened to the point that they were almost bigger than his face.

_Ding!_

"Lauren!" he shouted as the little light-bulb went on, leaping out of the top part of the bunk bed he was sleeping in. He realized what he did a few seconds later as he fell to the floor with a loud "**THUD**". I stared at his still form as he laid on his stomach, his arms stretched out in front of him while his legs pointed towards the ceiling. '_That had to hurt,_' I thought before yelping when he leapt up, as if the landing hadn't fazed him at all.

"Lauren, what are you _doing?!_" he started berating me as he grabbed my shoulders, his eyes wide in panic as he looked me up and down. "You know you're not supposed to be standing on that leg!"

I just stared at him with wide eyes of my own as Jack peeked over the top of the bunk bed, him and his snake blinking sleepily as they watched us with mild interest. "Um…Chris?" I began slowly. "I'm fine. My leg feels fine now. Look, see?"

I took my foot and stomped the ground a few times…_**hard.**_

"_Don't do that!_" Chris yelped as he reached out, as if trying to stop my leg from moving.

But I wasn't in any pain. It was as if my ankle had never been sprained before. But now I'll have to tell Chris that…

"Chris," I told him firmly to catch his attention. "Look in my eyes and tell me: do I look like I'm in pain?"

He looked. He stared intently at my eyes, his own eyes searching for any sign that I was hurt or lying to him. A few minutes passed by before he looked away. "No," he whispered softly. "You're not in pain…" He looked up at me again and, firmly but gently, said, "But I think we should take you to the nurse's office just to make sure that it's okay."

Why do I get the feeling that something is going to happen later today?


	4. Madmen, Knives, and Choices, oh my!

**Hey, this one is a _slightly_ edited version. The reason it's slightly edited is because I had to rush it so that I could give it to my teacher. At least it'll be a little more organized than before and some parts make a _little_ more sense. Otherwise, enjoy it as it is (and please forgive me for this one). Here are the previous answers to the reviews from before:**

**Fk306 animelover: Thanks! Yep. I updated! (pats self on the back)**

**Chapter 4: Madmen, Knives, and Choices, oh my!**

"Chris," I growled angrily as I glared at him. "Of all the things to happen as far as I've been hanging around with you, this has got to be the _worst!_"

Chris was walking ahead of me, a map in his hands as he tried to figure out where we were. "Don't worry," he began, looking up to glance around for a moment before returning to the map. "I've got it covered. We're almost back at camp."

I only rolled my eyes as I followed him, watching as he stopped in front of a bush with a triumphant grin on his face. "In fact," he said as he turned to me and placed one hand on the bush to move it aside. "Camp is just on the other side of thiiissss…bush?"

A snort of amusement escaped me as I stepped forward. "Yep. Camp is _definitely_ on the other side of the bush…if the camp was really a large meadow with a shallow river running through it!" I turned to face him and growled, "Face it, Chris. We're _lost!_"

Okay, I'll bet everyone's confused now. A little recap time on what you know and what you missed: After I had almost given Chris a heart attack, he and Jack had me go back to the nurse's office to get it examined again. The nurse had taken off the cast after muttering in irritation about patients not following orders, but he soon called Scoutmaster Jason down after he saw that my ankle was fine. And, what was a supposed to be a simple check-up, turned out to be one of the worst lectures in my _entire life!_ Okay, I know that I wasn't really supposed to stand on my leg for a good few weeks, but the thing was somehow healed and they wanted me to give an explanation!

I thought I was gonna die of embarrassment during the conversation. Especially when Scoutmaster Michael came in and outright demanded an explanation for all the ruckus. Both scoutmasters started to get into a heated argument, while I hid behind Chris the whole time.

The nurse, not really appreciating all this happening in his office, told me and Chris to go hiking or something while he attempted to calm the two scoutmasters down. I think it was mostly because the two were cursing at each another in a language that didn't really sound all that familiar to me…and the fact they both looked like they were reaching for weapons or something might have something to do with it. So we left camp with a few provisions and things that a good scout should always carry with them, and here we are now.

_**Lost.**_

I watched as Chris looked around in bewilderment, looking back and forth at the map and the scenery in order to find out what went wrong. "Bu-But we made the right turn! We made a left at the creek, then we went down the trail—oh man! Where did I go wrong?" he murmured over and over.

I only sighed as I stared up at the tree-tops, watching the birds and other forest creatures fly through the skies or leap around on the tree-branches in a game that looked very similar to a game of tag being played by little kids. The sun shined through the leaves of the trees and created patterns on the ground and river. The water itself bubbling over river-stones and adding to the calm that had descended.

"Hey Chris?" I asked softly, causing him to look up at me curiously.

"What's wrong?" he asked, almost like he was expecting an inferno of rage or something.

"I'm sorry that I made you worry this morning," I apologized, watching two red cardinals twirl around in the air in a special dance. "I know that I was supposed to stay off of my leg for a while, but when I woke up today, my leg felt…_strange._"

"Huh?" Chris wondered curiously. "How did it feel strange? What happened?"

I looked down at the ground and watched a small field mouse skitter by, pausing to clean its whiskers before it hopped away. "Well, you know how when you don't allow blood to flow to a certain part of your body, it goes numb? With the _pins-and-needles_ feeling?" When he didn't answer, I continued. "That's the feeling I had. Only, when I sat up in bed, the feeling went away like it wasn't even there."

I shook my head and looked up at Chris, smiling as I said, "It must sound crazy, but that's what happened. Strange things have always been happening to me since I was younger."

Chris and I just stood there, an uncomfortable silence settling between us as we stared around, taking in the scenery and avoiding each other's gaze at the same time. The wind blew past us in a great rush, causing some leaves to break off and swirl in a whirlwind around the both of us. Vaguely I thought that I heard a flute playing Hinata and Neji's song while this happened, but I just ignored it and watched the leaves fly on the wind.

"Lauren?"

I turned to look at Chris, watching him for a moment before he spoke again. "Did you-?" he began, but then stopped, as if trying to rethink things in his mind. "Have you ever experienced things that you couldn't really explain, even if you tried to make sense of it yourself?"

I didn't answer him as he gently grabbed a leaf that floated in front of him, holding said leaf up into the sunlight for a moment before he said anything else. "Have things ever happened to you that seem like they should be part of a science-fiction story?"

Stifling a small gasp of surprise, I just stared at Chris, wondering why he would ask such a thing. It just seemed strange. With the way he said it, it sounded like he was suspicious and hopeful, yet somehow…pleading…like he didn't want something to be true.

"Chris? I-," I began softly, causing him to turn back to face me. "I…" I stepped backwards for a moment for some reason, suddenly afraid of him. My foot landed on something lumpy…

And _big…_

"HEY!!" a sudden voice shouted from underneath me, causing me to yelp in shock and run over to Chris. He grabbed my arm and moved me behind him just as a large behemoth rose up from the ground, towering over us by three feet as he glared at us.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone so tall in my life that sent shivers down my spine whenever he spoke. This guy was a good eight feet tall with _really_ pale skin, dark red hair that had some white and purple tips here and there, mostly red and white clothes (along with some orange here and there), and emerald eyes that had a glint of something…predatory in their depths. It made me want to run away to the farthest place in the universe and hide in the smallest place imaginable.

And that _still_ wouldn't be far enough to get away from him!

As the large man loomed over us, everything seemed to go dead silent, like death himself had come through and every living thing went into hiding. "Well, well, well," he rumbled in a deep voice, each word sending shivers up and down my spine. "What do we have here? Two small younglings wandering around in my territory? How…_delightful._"

'_What's so delightful about meeting someone who looked like they could lift a bus with one hand?_' I wondered as we backed away from the man, who only stepped closer. I could have sworn that the ground bounced with every step he made.

"Now why are you two so far away from your little camp?" the man continued, seeming to enjoy scaring the living daylights out of us. "Surely there isn't anything…_interesting_ out here in these woods, now is there?"

Chris growled in anger as we continued to back off, trying to sound brave as he said, "That's none of your business, crabby. Why don't you make like a tree and leave?"

"_Chris!_" I hissed softly in warning, not wanting to provoke the guy. Who knows what he would do?

A low chuckle reached my ears as the guy stood there, apparently amused. "I would suggest that you listen to your friend and hold your tongue, boy," he rumbled dangerously, a malicious glint in his eyes as he stepped closer. "For now, I'll deal with you later."

With that, he backhanded Chris and sent him cart-wheeling through the air before he crashed into a tree, falling limp to the ground as I screamed out in shock. "CHRIS!!" I shouted as I tried to run over to him, only to find myself being lifted up into the air by the collar of my shirt. I couldn't stop a gasp of fear from escaping before I found myself face-to-face with the man, emerald eyes capturing my own gaze and holding me in place. I couldn't move much because of the paralyzing fear that gripped my mind as he looked me up and down, almost in confusion really.

"Hm…" he mused softly as he continued his examination, looking up at me with a curious gaze. "Strange. You're not like the other children."

"W-Wha?" I stuttered fearfully, not really getting what he was saying.

He didn't say anything for a moment, still looking me over like he did before. Then, he reached up and traced the side of my face with a large finger as he said, "I sense something…unusual about you, little one." He seemed to pause for a moment before an evil smile plastered itself on his face. "Maybe I should '_open you up_' and see what's inside you. Let's see what's so special about you."

"Put her _DOWN!!_"

My head shot in the direction of the new voice and saw another _really_ tall man standing a good 5-10 feet away, brownish-red eyes glaring at my captor as he clenched his fists. He wore mostly blue, silver, and yellow clothes and had golden hair with bluish tips, and he looked like he was built to be a police-man.

I had no clue as to who this guy was, but apparently big, tall, and creepy knew him.

"Ah, my old friend," he said happily. "Come here to see me end this child's life?"

The newcomer seemed to get bigger as anger flashed across his face. "You will do no such _thing, X!_" he hissed angrily.

"Oh?" 'X' said in amusement as he drew a knife out and brought it up to my neck, causing me to gasp softly in fear. "And who's going to stop me? _You?_"

With a battle cry, the guy charged forward with incredible speed and crashed into the giant, effectively knocking him down and throwing me out of his hand. "Oof!" I gasped in pain as I rolled away from the struggling two. I sat up and looked at the two as they tumbled around, exchanging blows here and there and doing everything one could imagine in a fight.

Knowing that they were distracted, I carefully crawled my way over to Chris, my right arm not wanting to cooperate for some reason. But that didn't really stop my concern for my friend as I continued to crawl over to Chris, who remained unconscious throughout the whole event.

When I finally reached him, I readjusted his body until he was resting in my lap, holding him close as I watched the two adults duke it out. "Chris," I whispered as I tried to wake him up. "Chris, wake up. Please."

He didn't wake up. But at least he was breathing, if a little too softly than I would have liked. "Please wake up, Chris," I whispered as I shook his shoulder. "I need you."

The sounds of battle suddenly stopped. A shadow loomed over us, causing me to look up quickly before I relaxed. It was the guy who fought against that "X" creep. He kneeled down and stared at us in a not-so-friendly look, looking at Chris with brown-red eyes for a moment before he looked up at me and stared at my arm. "You are injured," he grumbled.

I blinked at him for a moment before I looked at my own arm and gasped. Apparently the knife had cut me pretty deeply when he had charged into X, for the cut was probably a few inches deep (I almost thought I saw bone!) and 6-8 inches long from the top of my arm to the underside. The amount of blood was alarming as my arm laid limply next to me.

But the only thing that concerned me the most was: why wasn't I feeling any pain?

My arm was completely numb, so any pain that I should have been feeling was dulled. But that still didn't stop the fact that I was still bleeding heavily.

"Let me see," the man said as he reached for my arm, grabbing it gently for a moment before examining it more closely. He suddenly got a weird look on his face, causing me to stare at him in concern. "What's wrong?" I asked him.

The man seemed to snap out of his thoughts for a moment before he grabbed some bandages out of nowhere and began to wrap the cut. "It's nothing," he replied, his face completely serious as he tied the bandage to keep it in place. "Come on, I'll take you and your friend back to camp."

With that, he gently picked Chris up and put him over his shoulder before he reached down to help me up. Once I was on my feet, we began walking slowly into the opposite direction that we had been heading. I kept my arm limp by my side so that I wouldn't irritate it or cause it to bleed worse than it had been before.

Looking up at the man, I saw the far-off look on his face, like he was thinking of something that he didn't understand. "Thank you for saving us," I began softly, the man only glancing at me out of the corner of his eye. "That was really brave."

He snorted in amusement. "Kid," he grumbled softly. "Bravery has nothing to do with it. It's what you do that makes a difference."

"Oh," I muttered as I looked back down. There was more silence between us as we walked, the trail starting to look more familiar the further we got. I finally worked up the courage to look up and ask him, "Who are you? And who was that guy?"

When he didn't answer me, I thought that he had either ignored my question or didn't hear me until he said, "My name is Kaiza. As for the other one, just call him '_X_'. He and I have…a kind of history, if you want to call it that."

"Sounds like he did something terrible with the way you said it," I replied softly as I stepped around a hole in the middle of the trail.

I didn't see the pained look on his face as we stepped back into camp. "You have no idea," he whispered.

"Honostly, I have no idea how you keep getting into these messes!"

I smiled nervously at Shannon as she stood next to my seat, the nurse re-bandaging my arm after cleaning it a little bit. "I have no clue as to why they even happen," I muttered in response, glancing at Chris as he lay on a nearby bed. He was unconscious and had bandages wrapped tightly around his head.

Alexis raised her hand in a fist and was saying as she started counting off on each one, "First there was Jack's snake biting you after you stepped on him the first day of camp ("_I'm just lucky he had his poison sacks taken out and that I was wearing thick pants…_"), then there was you falling off a cliff ("_I was pushed off of it!_"), then there was that killer with the knife—"

"Alright, alright, I'm a klutz!" I snapped in irritation, wincing when I clutched my right hand. Some of the pain had returned a while ago, but I was still irritated at her. "It's not my fault that these things are happening to me," I grumbled as I looked at the ground.

"Okay, that's enough," the nurse said as he finished wrapping my arm up. "I want you and the others to leave right now. I want to have a word with her and I don't want any of you listening in."

Shannon and Alexis stared at one another for a moment before they left, a few of the others that had been hanging around outside the door scrambling away before Scoutmaster Jason came in, shutting the door behind him.

'_Uh-oh,_' I thought as I watched the Scoutmaster come over, the nurse getting up and both of them talking in hushed whispers. I looked over at Kaiza, who had stuck around to make sure that Chris and I would be alright. He was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest as he looked like a cowboy or something.

"Lauren?"

My head shot around to look at Scoutmaster Jason, who was standing close to where I was sitting. "Yes sir?" I asked, mentally slapping myself for sounding like a soldier.

Scoutmaster Jason smiled for a moment at my soldier impression before he got serious. "Lauren," he began. "For the past few days, you've been to the nurse's office for two incidents that you shouldn't even be alive from."

I just stared at him in confusion, not really getting where this was going.

He sighed in a way that suggested that he was having a hard time trying to put his words lightly. "What I'm saying is," he continued. "We're going to have to send you home."

"What?!" I yelped in shock, staring at him in disbelief.

"I'm sorry," the nurse said, coming up and placing a large hand on my shoulder. "But we don't know what else to do. Those two times you survived, but the third time you could be killed. We only want to make sure that you're safe."

Kaiza snorted in amusement. "Looks like you two have done a pretty good job already," he said sarcastically.

"Kaiza," Scoutmaster Jason warned, sending him a glare that silenced him. He turned back to me and said, "We want you to be safe." I looked down at the ground, feeling like someone had just taken a lead-weight and dropped it onto my shoulders. "But-," he continued, the tone causing me to look up hopefully. "-if you really want to stay, and risk any other occurrences happening, then that is your choice. But I would suggest that you think about it before you choose."

I thought about what he said, thinking over the dangers that could happen if I did stay, but also thinking of the friends that I'd be leaving behind. I've already left behind so many friends, and I didn't want to lose anymore. The cons seemed to outweigh the pros.

I made my decision.

**YoukoKitsune: Well, technically Lauren is just a human. In future chapters you'll find out about her past.**

**White Hunter: Again, you'll have to see in future chapters. And I read one of your stories. It looked great!**

**Maple Wish: Wait no longer, the chapter is here!**

**Amazons of Cybertron Temple: Haha, I was hoping that's what people would imagine! I'm glad you enjoyed my story. **

maccus lover: You hit the nail there, buster.

**Annonomus/meh names sabrina: (blinks)...okay, first off: try typing a little better on your reviews? Not to be rude, but it just looks a little rediculous trying to figure out what you're saying. Second, you'll have to look for the Beast Warriors. They're there; you just need to look for them!  
**

**Well, that's all I can think of for now, and thanks for reviewing and reading everyone! **

Cheetor and Waspinator: (holding up a sign with the Disclaimer) G'reth the Air Dragon does not own Transformers, Hasbro does.

Me: Have fun! Also, I just _know_ you guys are going to recognize some characters, but please do not complain about the names. If you don't like them, either give them a name that you like and not bother me about them, or just stop reading. It's hard enough coming up with fake names for some characters that already exist without them sounding rediculous. Otherwise, I hope you enjoy this chapter!


	5. Notes and the Attacking Shoe!

**I'm not really sure if I really edited this one. I don't really see anything that I changed except for something tiny. I hope you enjoy this anyway! Here's the previous answers to the reviews:**

**Elita One: If you look close at how they act, you'll figure out who they are (plus, the name "X" is a dead giveaway since it's used in the show). I know it's been a while, but sometimes writer's block tends to get to you.**

**Fk306 animelover: (snorts) That's true! XD**

**WereWolfPrincess1215: Yeah, cliffhangers are nasty, but it's my job as a writer to create cliffies for all you readers. ;3**

**maccus lover: Locking oneself in Megatron's closet is pretty dangerous in on itself. If you're going to do that, it might be a good idea to bring something to protect you when he breaks down his closet door to get to you. ;3**

**Annonomus Sabrina: Oh, you were typing like RT? I wondered why it sounded familiar...anyway, thanks for the idea Sabrina, but I had been about to add those two in that chapter anyway, but I was just trying to figure out how I was going to do it anyway. No no! Your typing wasn't rediculous...I was just having trouble understanding how you were trying to type. Now that I know, I can understand now! You actually make a better Rattrap impression than I do. Seriously! (coughs) Anyway, I'm blabbering on here, so I'll continue on. Yes, I am a girl. Um...I don't think I put him in yet. I think he'll be in the next chapter, but I'm sure you'll recognise another one of the Preds here! ;3 Oh, and you forgot Scorponok in that list. Thanks for the ideas you sent me, I'm also sure you'll recognize an idea in this chapter too. (giggles)**

**blood shifter (nice name) : Aw, thanks! Yis, I will be bringing in more characters. I've already introduced a new character!**

**Crayfall: Thanks for the ideas! They're good, but you'll see what I have in mind for Lauren in future chapters (quite possibly the next chapter!)! So just wait and see. ;3**

**Lissie66: Wow. I'm glad you li-I mean, _love_-my story! I'm glad that's how you feel about it. It makes me happy to know that people read my story and feel that way: 3 Well, don't worry, I hope to write my stories a lot quicker now that it's starting to get back up to speed, but school is going to start soon for me so I hope that I still have chances to write (though I'll most likely sneak in some time... Dunno...)!**

**Skull kid femine: Yeah, that's true. I _would_ have had to change the title. Eh, I'm thinking about the romance thing, but if I do, it'll most likely be fluff, you know, light stuff like brother/sister love...can't say the same for Silverbolt and Blackarachnia! XD O/ / /O Oh sweet primus...if I tried writing something like that I'd get a nosebleed or something even worse!**

**Chapter 5: Notes and the Attacking Shoe!**

Have you ever had one of those times where you find something…unusual in a certain place

Have you ever had one of those times where you find something…unusual in a certain place? Like a book or something that appears in your bag when you know that you didn't put it there?

I've had that happen to me once or twice. And this would most likely be the third time.

I guess I should elaborate on this and add a little bit of a recap: after Scoutmaster Jason suggested that I go back home after all the crazy things that have been happening to me and gave me the choice to stay or go, I decided to stay. It took a bit of convincing, but I finally got them to believe me and let me go back to my cabin, my arm in a cast and easel.

A few days had passed and I was on my way back to the cabin after breakfast this morning. As soon as I walked inside, I noticed that my paperback version of "_The Chronicles of Narnia_" was out of its normal place in the side-table drawer, lying on top of my half of the bunk-bed. "What the slag?" I mumbled as I picked it up. I blinked when I saw a little white piece of folded paper sticking out of the same place that I was at in the book.

Curious, I set it down and opened it up, picking up the curious little item. It was neatly folded together into a shape that looked very much like that of a cat's head and in the center, it was addressed to me but it didn't say who it was from.

I blinked at this and sat down, turning it around so I could start unfolding it carefully. I didn't want to rip the darn thing, but with how complicated the folding was I had to take time to examine where to unfold it next. It must have taken me twenty to twenty-five minutes before I finally got the whole thing unfolded, and I could only use my left hand! It's hard enough doing things with only one hand, but it just makes things worse when it's your worse hand.

I stared at the message that was in the note, my mind going blank momentarily before it came back and reread the thing. It said:

"_Roses are red, violets are blue._

_From the moment I first saw you, you took my breath away._

_Your charm, personality, and amazing grace make me feel alive._

_I have never seen someone with such beauty,_

_Such as that of a cheetah on the prowl._

_If there was an angel missing from the heavens, you would be that angel._

_If there was a chorus, your voice would be the strongest out of them all._

_If there was a desert, you would be the river of life._

_I adore you with all my heart,_

_Your secret admirer._"

There was nothing but silence as I read the note over and over again, completely confused as to who would send such a thing. It was nice, yes, but also a little freaky. I turned it this way and that, trying to find a name or something that would tell me who sent it. There was nothing.

I stared at the note, my mind going over many different possibilities as to who could have given it to me.

_Knock knock!_

"Come in," I called, not taking my eyes off of the paper.

There was the sound of the door opening before footsteps clicked on the wooden floor-boards. I laid the letter back down on the bed behind me and looked up at the person that stood there. It was Tarry, and he looked like he had a new bump on his head from another one of those books that started attacking him since the first day we started camp.

He looked at me in annoyance before he handed me a folded piece of paper, also in the shape of a cat.

I stared at the thing in confusion, looking at it like it was a squishy bug or something. Tarry growled for a moment before he moved the note closer to my face. "Well? Take it!" he snapped, which sounded very similar to a certain Air Commander.

Startled out of my mind, I reached up and took it. Tarry shook his head and walked away, muttering something about, "Stupid girls and their notes." When he stepped outside, a book suddenly came out of nowhere and smacked into his head, knocking him off the steps and onto the ground. I may be near-sighted, but I think that the title said, "The Idiots Guide to Getting a Life"…or something along those lines anyway.

I looked away from the door and back down at the note. Again, I unfolded it with much more ease this time and read the one line. "_Meet me under the docks at the lake tonight before curfew._"

Again, I blinked at the note. It just seemed so strange, getting these two letters in the same day.

I shook my head and got up, putting the notes back in my book and placing it back into my side-table. I needed time to think.

Of course, I completely forgot about one thing: overprotective friends.

"Shannon, I know you're worried about me, but come on! I'm only walking around the camp, what could happen here?" I growled in annoyance as I walked through camp, Shannon and David following behind me.

"Well, you never know," Shannon replied as she kept pace. "Something's bound to happen."

"Like what?" I asked, rolling my eyes up to the sky. Primus, this was getting annoying.

"You could walk in on archery practice and get hit by an arrow," Shannon stated.

"That's on the other side of camp," I pointed out, shaking my head as some campers got out of my way, so they wouldn't '_hurt_' me in any way (…I found out that my friends threatened anyone that came near me, so that would explain a few things…). As if I didn't already know not to go anywhere _near_ the archery grounds. I had to take archery in my gym class in the sixth or seventh grade for Pete's sake, so I should _know_ what not to do!

"You could fall into the lake!"

"That's outside of camp and we're inside the camp itself," I replied as I walked by Tarry, who was wearing a helmet for some odd reason. I found out why when another book hit him in the back of the head, the helmet protecting his poor head from anymore abuse.

"Hah!" he yelled triumphantly as he turned around, pointing in the direction of the person responsible for it before another book attacked his face and knocked him to the ground. I could have sworn that I saw little wasps in angel outfits flying around his head.

"You could get hit by those books like Tarry," Shannon said as she pointed to said person, who was groaning in pain.

I couldn't help but snort as I continued walking. "Nah, I'm not on the hit list. I found it yesterday and found Tarry's name circled in red marker multiple times."

Shannon sighed as she put her hand on my shoulder, stopping me from going any further. "Look, we're just concerned about you," she said, causing me to look at her and listen. "Ever since you came here, you've nearly been killed _twice_. We just want you to be safe."

I just stayed silent, looking at her and David for a moment before I smiled. "I know," I said softly. "But please, you guys are overreacting. I know that those things nearly killed me, but those are things that happen everyday."

They both raised an eyebrow at that.

"Okay, maybe not everyday," I corrected myself, rolling my eyes to the sky again. "But still, there's always someone that's like Anna that will grind your nerves and they'll most likely do what she did, if not something else, because they're jealous of another person…or they have mental issues. And guys like '_X_'? There are men and women like that who have had serious problems or had bad experiences in the past, and it affected them in some way or another. It causes them to think that how they've been treated is the way that others are supposed to be treated.

"The point is," I continued, turning around to fully face them, smiling softly. "Everything happens for a reason. The things that happened to me proved that I'm only human, not some superhuman being. It's also telling me that there are people out there that need help…need a friend."

I brought my hands up (as best as I could with one of them in an easel) and held them apart, like I was holding a ball or something delicate. "Everyone is like a lit candle. When a kind person comes into someone's life, they make things seem a little brighter for that person. They can help them find hope for the future and help them find the good qualities that they can't see, because they only see the bad things about themselves."

They stared at me in amazement and wonder as I brought my hands back down, a painful twinge a small reminder of my injury. "You've just got to let things go the way they do," I said slowly, turning around. "Even if they do happen, something else will occur that will save you, like Kaiza and whoever saved me from that cliff-fall did."

"_For the royalty!!_"

I snapped my head around and yelped as I dodged the charging streak of red as it barreled into David, both crashing to the ground with a painful _thud_. I couldn't help but wince.

Gravel does _not_ make for a good landing spot.

"That's gotta hurt," I muttered. Shannon only nodded silently, standing in front of the tangled mess of body parts as I stood on the opposite side.

……I didn't know that arms could bend that way.

A moment later, Terry came over and stood next to me, panting like a dog as he glared at the kid in red. "What (_gasp_) were you (_pant_) thinking!?" he panted slowly, looking like he had run a mile or something. I leaned away from him. He looked scary at the moment, and I didn't want to be near him. "Y-You shouldn't (_gasp_) be running off (_wheeze_) like that!"

The red-headed kid, the one that had smacked into David, shot out of the tangled mess and glared at Terry. "I do not have to follow your orders, _spider!_ I only follow the command of the Royalty!" he stated, sounding like a drone that had been given a personality.

Terry glared back at him and hissed, "But the '_Royalty_' gave me orders to keep _you_ out of trouble! And if you don't behave, I'll make sure that you suffer his punishment!"

I was standing next to Shannon now, having slowly made my way around the two, and stared at the two like they were supposed to be in the nuthouse or something. David was sitting up on the ground as he recovered from his painful landing, watching the two argue some more before they even made a move to walk away.

"The Royalty told me to keep a look out for the-!"

"I don't _care_ what he told you! You _know_ that we're supposed to keep low about that!" Terry snapped before they disappeared from our sight.

A moment of silence passed as we stared after them, waiting for any other attacks from red blurs before Shannon and I helped David up. "Is that guy alright?" I asked them, curious about who he was.

"Yeah, he can take a lot of pain," Shannon replied, helping David dust off. "But he's always been a little…off in the head."

"Ah," I hummed, staring back in the direction of the two. There was more silence between us before I looked at them. "Wanna go visit Chris? I heard that he gets out today."

"Okay," they replied.

So we started walking towards the nurse's office, a sudden thought coming to my mind about the notes I got earlier. The secret admirer…could it have been Chris? I remember him doing some origami swans once when the topic somehow snuck in on one of our conversations. He had even done one of a cheetah, much to my shock and surprise.

Could it have been him that sent them?

"Hey!" Chris said happily as we walked in, sitting up in the bed that you usually see in hospitals. "You guys came!"

"Of course," I replied. "What, did you think that we would forget about you?"

"_Mayyybe. Mayyybe not_," he said in a sing-song voice. We shared a good laugh at that comment. I took the time to get a better look at him. He had bandages wrapped around his head, due to the blow from hitting the tree a few days ago. The nurse had told us that he wanted to keep Chris here to see if there had been any damage to his brain that might affect him in any way.

So far none of that happened, and he'll be free to go soon!

"Alright, alright settle down," the nurse said as he walked in, carrying a new clipboard since his last one had been smashed into the wall (by who I don't really know). "Chris, we just need to remove those bandages and you can leave. And Lauren, I need to check on your arm as well to see how those stitches are holding up."

Oh yeah, I never mentioned that I had to get stitches, did I? Trust me, even if your arm is somehow numbed, the sight of the thread and needle going through your skin and actually _feeling_ it without the pain is scary enough to make you want to pass out.

We both nodded and waited for him. As soon as he got the bandages and a pair of strong scissors, he set to work on Chris's head-cast, snipping away at it carefully. It lasted less than fifteen minutes (which surprised me, since I thought that it took longer than that) before he succeeded and took it off, revealing soft cotton underneath before he took that off too. This caused Chris's hair to stick flat against his head, making it look like a bowl-shaped hairdo.

"If I even bothered to carry a mirror with me Chris, I'd show you how funny you look with your new hairdo," I snorted in amusement.

"Hah hah, very funny Lauren," Chris replied as he scratched at his head, which must have been itching like crazy underneath that cast. "Man, that stuff is _itchy!_"

"I found using a hairdryer set on cool stops the itching while you have a cast on," I said sympathetically.

The nurse laughed as he shook his head. "Alright, it's your turn now," he said as he motioned for me to sit down. "Chris? I want you and the others to wait outside. I'll send her back out once I'm finished." They nodded and left, Chris still scratching his head like a madman before Shannon closed the door. I took my arm out of the easel and set it on the nearby table, sitting still and watching as he cut away the cast, being extra careful to watch the stitches under the cotton layer.

Once the nurse finished cutting the cast, he removed it and started to slowly unwrap the soft cotton covering. When something thin and black came with it, the nurse seemed to freeze. I could only stare at it, at a loss for words at what I saw.

It was a piece of stitching from my arm.

The nurse and I looked at one another before he continued to unwrap the cotton, much more slowly than before as even more stitches started to come off of the fibers. When he removed the cotton, pale white skin revealed itself with barely a hint of a scar on the surface. The stitches had somehow popped out and the skin healed itself. But how? How could a cut as large as it had been heal that fast?

"I-I don't understand," the nurse stuttered in bewilderment. "It should have taken at least more than a week or so to heal, and your stitches shouldn't have popped out like this!" He looked up at me slowly, concern in his eyes. "We need to talk to Jason."

Why do I get the feeling that this won't end well?

* * *

And it's not going to end well.

I sat in a chair outside of Scoutmaster Jason's office, staring at the ground as I gripped my hands nervously, hardly even daring to move. I didn't know what's happening to me or why. I was afraid…very afraid of what Scoutmaster Jason will do with me.

I didn't want to think about it, but the thoughts wouldn't leave me be. My heart was pounding in my chest, making it harder to breathe. My mind was racing, trying to process what was going to happen now.

What if he…

"Lauren."

My head snapped around to look at Mr. Demarcus as he stood next to me, his "raptor eyes", as one of the other scouts called them one time, staring down at me. "Relax," he stated as gently as he could, which sounded more like a snarl than anything else. "Jason won't do anything to hurt you. He just wants to know what is going on."

I looked back down at the floor again and said nervously, "But-But I don't know _what_ is going on. I don't know what is happening or why it is! I'm scared…_I'm scared._"

That last bit was a cracked whisper as a shudder shook my body, tears threatening to fall. A sudden weight on my head made itself known as I blinked, a couple of tears dropping down onto my pants and leaving dark spots. The weight wasn't harsh nor was it completely gentle, but it had the desired effect as my body stopped shaking.

Looking up, I saw Mr. Demarcus kneeling down in front of me, his hand resting on top of my head while the other draped over one of his legs. He looked at me sternly as he said, "There is no need to be frightened. None of us are ever sure of why things happen the way they do or how. All we can do is get through it as best as we can, to strive forward to become better than we are now."

I stared at him, a little dazed at the advice that he had just given me. I felt a strange calm descend upon me, the panic that gripped my chest slowly disappearing. It was strange, but it was welcoming all the same as I nodded, rubbing the tears away from my eyes just as the nurse stuck his head out. "Lauren? The scoutmaster will see you now," he said, giving a slight smirk when Mr. Demarcus straightened up and took his hand off of my head.

I slowly stood up, still feeling unusually calm. The reason this is unusual was that anytime I was going to meet someone like a teacher or another and I request to speak with them, I would think that I had done something wrong. But now I was calm, like I was just going in to chat with a good friend.

Even though I didn't know what was happening to me, I was grateful for it calming down my rattled nerves. Now I wonder if it can do it once I take my driver's test to get my license…

As I stepped into the office, I noted the strange and beautiful pink flower on Scoutmaster Jason's desk as it bobbed up and down gently in the breeze that the AC provided. The flower itself looked like a lily, but at the same time it was a different kind of flower. But I couldn't dwell on it anymore as the scoutmaster started to speak. "I see you have an interest in flowers," he said gently.

I looked up at him and said, "It's beautiful, but I don't know much about flowers…my mom would know, since she used to own a flower shop. I'm more interested in animals."

"I see," he chuckled, motioning for me to sit down in the seat in front of his desk. "Going to become a vet someday?"

I shook my head, wondering why he was talking about that. "No, I thought about that, but the more I saw vets operating on wounded animals, the more I changed my mind. I don't mind the blood, but it's the thought of poking around inside a living being that unnerves me…" I shuddered at the thought. "I hope to be a writer instead someday."

He nodded, a smile on his face as he sat back in his chair. "Well, let me know when one of your books gets published," he said in amusement. He then leaned forward, his elbows propped up on the desk as he laced his hands together before he rested his chin on top of them. "We need to talk. The nurse has told me that your stitches had come out when he removed your cast and found that your injury had somehow '_repaired_' itself. Do you know anything about how this could have happened?"

I stared at him silently for a moment before looking down, shaking my head in response. "No," I said softly, unconsciously rubbing the almost snow-white scar on my arm. "I don't know what's happening to me."

Scoutmaster Jason stared at me long and hard, as if trying to determine something that I couldn't really comprehend. "Is there anything you would like to tell me?" he asked, almost scaring me for a moment when he spoke. "Anything at all?"

My thoughts drifted back to that day when I had fallen off the cliff, back to that dream of the giant multi-tailed tiger, at how it was easily killed by an unknown force and how frightened it had looked. And the strange light…

"No," I answered, not sure why I didn't want to tell him about the dream.

Scoutmaster Jason said nothing for a moment before he nodded. "You may go now," he said, turning to some paperwork on his desk.

I nodded and stood up, standing there for a few seconds before saying, "Have a good day, Scoutmaster Jason."

As I left, Scoutmaster Jason smiled a bit, his eyes giving a gentle red glow.

­­­­­­­­­

(_Hours Later_)

'_Okay, it's almost curfew time,_' I thought as I walked towards the lake, having managed to avoid Shannon and David and sneak away. I walked across the sand that surrounded the lake, heading towards the docks. The docks were high enough to hang over the lake, so there was a gap large enough for several people to hide under it. It would have been the perfect place to meet someone in secret.

…okay, _bad thoughts!!_

I stepped down the slope that led to the underside of the dock, watching the still water give an occasional ripple from bats scooping mouthfuls of water. It was dark under the docks, but I could still see with the light of the moon over me. I couldn't see anyone under the platform, but I waited anyway, hoping that whoever it was would arrive soon. I just felt this chill run down my spine when I looked out at the lake, the same feeling rising up like the time I met X, only, he wasn't there.

Then again, I have been a little more jumpy because of that event, so that might explain the feeling.

_Plunk!_

My head shot in the direction of the plunk, seeing a dark figure standing still in the shadows of the dock. I stood still under the shadows, watching the figure in stunned silence. Neither of us moved for a long time before I stepped forward. "Hello?" I called out, feeling nervous as I watched to see how they would react.

"Lauren?"

Wait a minute. That voice was very familiar. It sounded like…

"Chris?" I called out, stepping forward to, sure enough, see Chris standing there. "What are you doing here? I thought you were heading to the cabin?"

"I thought you were too," he replied, moving closer as well. "What are you doing here?"

"I asked you first."

We were both silent for a moment, looking anywhere other than each other. Then, deciding just to get it over with, I turned to him at the same time as he turned to me and blurted, "I'm meeting my secret admirer!"

A long pause of silence as we stared at each other, our arms frozen in place when we raised them in emphasis. It was a long time before we even moved, even though we just pointed to each other. "You're my secret admirer?" we asked at the same time.

_Blink blink…_

"Okay, what's going on?" I asked, suspicious of all this. I pointed to Chris and asked, "Did you send me a note in the shape of a cat head?"

Chris just stared at me in confusion before he shook his head. "No. Didn't you send _me_ a note?" he asked.

I shook my head and stared, Chris having the same expression as me. "Let me see your note," we demanded at the same time, taking our notes out and exchanging them with one another. We spent the next few minutes reading the notes and staring in disbelief.

"Chris?" I started, my eyebrow twitching in irritation. "I can't write poetry. I haven't written in any of my notebooks all day."

"And I can't write poetry like this either," Chris stated. We looked up at each other, hearing a soft chuckle that got louder the more we listened.

"_Tehehehehehe-hahahahahaha_!"

I recognize that chuckle anywhere. It's… "Terry! Get out here!" I ordered, turning around to glare at the hidden figure.

Terry slunk out of the shadows, holding his sides as he all but cackled. "Surprised?" he chuckled before he burst into another fit of laughter.

"Did you send these to us as a prank?" I ground out, Chris stepping back a couple of steps. He knew that when I got angry, nobody messed with me.

Terry couldn't hold it in and burst out laughing, sounding like some mutated kind of hyena. "Yes, it was me!" he cackled. "And to think that the two of you fell for it! HAHAHAHA!! Heheh-um, what are you doing? Why are you taking your shoe off? W-What are you going to do with that?"

Oh, revenge is so _sweet._

(_P.O.V. off_)

Scoutmaster Jason walked by the cabins, watching as the scouts ran about to get to their respected cabins. He was making his usual rounds to make sure that all the scouts made it safely and didn't wander off. So far he had checked every scout that he watched over while Scoutmaster Michael checked over his half. They had both agreed to watch over half each to keep a better eye on the scouts.

…and keep an eye out for something else.

Almost satisfied with his inspection, he headed over to the last cabin, where Chris, Lauren, and Jack were staying in to check on them. Just as he was about to knock…

"AAAIIIEEE!!"

His head snapped around to find the source of the scream, blinking when he saw Terry streaking by with another blur chasing after him with a shoe being swung around by the laces. "Get back here you _baka!_" a familiar voice yelled out, leaping up and smacking him in the back of the head with the shoe.

"YEOW! I said I was _sorry!_" Terry yelped as he continued running, covering his head with his arms in a futile attempt to protect his head from the attacking shoe.

"Sorry isn't good enough when it comes to a prank!" Lauren replied, whacking him in the back this time. "Pranksters need to be taught a lesson!"

"You've made your point! _OW!_ That was my _neck!_"

Scoutmaster Jason just stood there, watching as the two continued to run. Scoutmaster Michael stuck his head out with an angry look on his face, about to yell at someone before the two ran by him, causing his face to change from anger to confusion as he watched them disappear around a couple of cabins. Mr. Demarcus walked up to Jason with a look of bewilderment on his face, as if he didn't believe what he had just seen.

"In all my years of being a warrior," he started, watching as Chris tried to restrain Lauren while Terry hid behind Alexis. "I would not have expected someone as petite and shy as that girl to take a shoe to someone like the spider."

Jason only shook his head in response when Lauren grudgingly allowed Chris to lead her towards them, but not without shaking her fist that held the deadly shoe of _doom_ in it_._ "Humans are strange," he said slowly, turning around and walking back to his own living quarters. "And things will be getting a lot stranger…and even more dangerous. I have a feeling things won't be the same, so keep an eye on her, Dinobot."

* * *

**A/N: OooOoH! Another cliffie! Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone for their ideas and support. It makes me happy to see your reviews. It lets me know how I did and it gives me wonderful ideas that I never even thought of! Oh, and for those that read my previous version of this story, don't worry...a certain black agent will _still_ be in this story! You'll just have to wait for it!**


	6. Attack of the Alien Robots!

**HEY!! I finally managed to finish this chapter. It took a long time because I had to do my summer reading (and answer questions to one of the books), go to school, have homework in seven periods (since they changed it from the four block system into a seven period system...), and writer's block. At least I managed to get it done, which took around 13 pages in Microsoft Word. Sorry about the long wait, but I managed to make it longer than any other chapter I've ever written before. I hope you guys enjoy this, and I think that some of you will recognise some things! Oh, and also, I've edited some of the previous chapters so that they're better than before (considering I gave it to my English teacher to review).  
****  
Cheetor: G'reth the Air Dragon doesn't own anything except herself. **

**Me: And now I will answer the reviews!****blood shifter: Yes, we will be seeing more of Kaiza. He's in this chapter!**

**Sabrina: Yeah. It'd be really funny if something like that happened in real life. Tarantulas running and screaming like a little girl while a human girl chases after him. I think that you're going to see some of your ideas in here (even things that I couldn't help but add). /sweatdrops anime-style/ Guess that your brother hates it when you try to reveal the names like that, huh? Yeah, just fluffy luff, and you'll have to wait to find out. You'll also see the others soon. And thanks for the score! bows**

**Elita One: Yeah, but sometimes writer's block, summer reading, and school tend to get in the way. Considering that this is my senior year this year. I'm most likely going to be busier than ever, just depending on the amount of homework. Eh, the idea wasn't all that bad. I think it's pretty cool.**

**maccus lover: /sweatdrops and grabs phone, dialing a number before putting phone to ear/ ...yeah, hey, Ratchet? I'm gonna need you on standby...yeah, another fan...no, it's not the fan I'm worried about, even though I care about the safety of others...it's Megs I'm worried about...no, the Beast Wars one...okay...yes, I'll have that high-grade ready for you afterwards. Bye. /turns phone off and looks at you/ I hope that you know what you're doing.**

**Skull kid femine: Well, I'm not sure, since I've never really written one like that. But ya neva know. shrugs As for your question, you'll find out soon enough.**

**BCS, aka, Shiva: Okay, that's fair. I'm a girl too. You and several others have all suggested the same thing: a swimming trip. Strange...but a great idea none-the-less! And don't worry, Scorpy and Waspy are going to be in here. Not sure that I'll add Transmutate. Where I'm going, she'd have already been shown and died...but don't worry, I'll mention Transmutate. Those are good suggestions. Some of them are good, but you'll see what'll happen. ;3**

**Zoomy Da Boom Boom: Is there any other black agent that I somehow missed? /looks though Beast Wars DVDs/ And "flame" means that the author doesn't want another person to give them a kind of review that bashes it. Like this: "This is the _worst_ story I've ever read! The plot is overused, and blah, blah, blah, blah..." And that's not using it in the kind of writing that some people use. I've rarely gotten any, so I can't really explain it that well (the ones I got were on a previous story that apparently I didn't get right...the person threatened to sue if I didn't take it off...I hated how they did it because after that I didn't want to write any more stories in that one category I put it in).**

**Lissie66: No, the scoutmasters aren't Autobots. Although one of them is the _decendent_ of the Autobots. The other is the decendent of the Decepticons. You'll see soon.**

**Gadget and Gismo: Well well, this is new. Twins? /pauses and grabs phone again, dialing a number and holding it against my ear/ ...hey, Sunny, Sides!...yes, I'm posting the next chapter...that's great Sides. Hey, listen, I think I found a couple of twins that you'd like to meet...no, they're not robots...at least, not to my knowledge...okay, see ya later. /shuts off phone and grins at you two/ Anyway, yes, that certain agent is indeed Ravage. And you guys gave me part of an idea for this chapter. Thanks!**

**Insane: See some of the other reviews (or just look above this one) for the answer to that agent question. I'm glad that you liked my stories!**

**??: Heh, thanks. I'm glad that you enjoy this. ;3 Yeah, Inferno is pretty crazy and doesn't know when to quit. --**

**P.S.: I hope that you can forgive me for the names that I give to the three new characters here. I tried to describe them enough (two of them anyway), but I had an extremely difficult time finding good names for them. If you have any ideas for them (especially for Inferno), _PLEASE_ tell me and I'll choose the ones that sound like those three characters should sound. Enjoy!**

* * *

Ah, sleep. It's the one thing that helps rest your mind after a crazy day, so that you can wake up and challenge the next morning ahead of you. I don't know if we like sleeping because we don't have to worry about thinking or if it's the dreams that we can watch, like they're our own personal movie that only we are allowed to see. Dreams of sweets and delights galore, adventures and treasure hunting—

**_BOOM!!_**

—explosions and crashing that shakes the very ground underneath you included.

"What the heck was _that?!_" I yelped at no one in particular, my upper body on the ground while my legs stayed on the bed, my bed sheets covering my head. The sudden explosion had startled me out of dream-land and back into the land of reality, which was the reason for my current position. It was totally uncalled for, but I was kinda glad that the explosion woke me up.

For some odd reason I was dreaming of a bunch of donuts doing the tango while a band of toaster strudel pastries sang the song _I Like to Move it, Move it_ from "Madagascar". Talk about _creepy…_

Light suddenly filled my vision as someone lifted the dark sheet off my head, Chris's face peeking in at me. I stared up at him as he tossed said sheet away and kneeled closer to my face. "You okay?" he asked in concern. I noticed a red mark on his cheek, most likely from hitting the ground himself.

"I'm fine," I told him with a pained grunt. Looking past him, I noticed that Jack was lying on his back with his arms and legs spread out in various positions. "Jack looks like he's in more pain, though."

Chris looked over at our fellow cabin-mate and nodded. Just then, I felt something smooth and cool around my neck…something _moving…_

"Jack," I called out in annoyance. "If you don't want to put Quickstrike in a container, I don't have a problem with that. But could you at _least_ make sure that I don't find him in my bed every morning?"

"He likes ya," came the woozy reply.

"Joy," I grumbled as said snake moved his head closer to my face and gave my cheek a friendly '_good morning_' nuzzle. "Chris?" I asked. "What was that explosion from earlier? It sounded like someone just set off a nuke!"

"Actually, a nuke would've been louder than that," Chris responded as he helped me to my feet. "And I don't know what that explosion was. Maybe it was one of the new scouts that Scoutmaster Jason told us would be arriving this week."

I shrugged as I helped Jack to his feet. "Whatever it was," I muttered. "It must have woke up the whole camp." I couldn't help but glance out the window and spotted the kid that had run David over a few days ago, and he was running past the cabins screaming, "_Protect the Royalty!!_"

I think that guy lost his marbles _long_ before he ever came here.

_Knockknockknock!_

"Come in," Chris called as I darted for the dressing screen, not wanting whoever was out there to see me in my pj's. Jack's snake wrapped a little tighter around my neck, but for some strange reason, I heard Jack yelp in shock as he suddenly jerked forward and landed a few feet away from the screen. It was almost like someone invisible had shoved him forward.

I've been seeing something like this happen to Jack quite a few times. It was whenever his snake was with me and he was standing a few feet away. Anytime I would suddenly move, like getting up and walking five feet away from the bunk-beds, he'd always fall out and land in some painful position. It was really strange, but I didn't question him about it.

The sound of a doorknob turning was the only thing that told me that the person on the other side of the door had heard him before two sets of footsteps clunked on the floorboards. One was heavy-set and the other was light, most likely another kid's footsteps.

"Morning Scoutmaster," I heard Chris say politely, yet he still managed to sound cheerful.

The footsteps stopped somewhere in the middle of the room and paused. There was a short period of silence before Scoutmaster Jason's voice spoke up. "Someone's missing," he began before he paused. "…where's Lauren?"

"I've over here," I said as I poked my arm out and waved it around.

"She doesn't like being in her pajama's when visitors come," Chris explained. "She said that it makes her uncomfortable."

"It's almost been two weeks and I'm still getting used to the idea of waking up in the morning with you two in the same room," I grumbled aloud as I poked my head out to glare at Chris. I blinked when I spotted someone standing behind Scoutmaster Jason. "New cabin-buddy?" I asked without thinking.

"Why, yes," he replied in surprise. I don't think he'd expected me to ask that. He stepped away from the shy kid and said, "This is Dante, and he'll be your new cabin-mate."

Dante looked at the ground, shifting uncomfortably as he made soft "buzzing" noises. He looked like he was expecting someone to attack him and tear him limb from limb. He wore a bright yellow shirt with black here and there underneath a green jacket, said jacket somehow looking a little bigger than he was. He wore a pair of tight green jeans and a pair of mostly black sneakers, both shoes having a green wasp on them.

Heck, he looked like one big wasp!

I watched him fidget nervously for a few seconds before I smiled. I knew what he was going through. "Hey," I called over to him, his head jerking up as he nervously stared at me with impossibly bright-blue eyes. "Relax, okay? We're all friends here, so no one's going to attack you."

"What about three days ago when you attacked Terry with your shoe?" Chris asked as I looked at him. "You chased him from the lake and all the way around camp before we stopped you."

"He pranked us, Chris," I growled. "Tell me that _you_ wouldn't be angry enough to chase after him for messing with our minds?"

He seemed to think about it for a moment before he shrugged. Turning back to the new kid, I gave him a kind smile as I continued, "Anyway, no one's going to attack you unless they have a good reason or they've got bad issues."

Dante gave a nervous laugh, but hey, at least it's still a laugh. "See?" I told him. "We're not bad people…we're just silly most of the times!"

"Not as silly as she is," Chris said in a stage-whisper kind of voice to Dante while Scoutmaster Jason raised an eyebrow at this.

I raised my own eyebrow at Chris before I slowly ducked back behind the screen. I reached down for something and grinned like a loon, mentally cackling like a maniac as I positioned the squirming object in one hand. "Oh _Chri-_iiiisss," I called out in a sickly sweet voice. "Do you remember that prank someone did on the scoutmasters yesterday?"

I heard Chris give an almost inaudible '_gulp_'. He knew I was up to something. "Y-Yeah…what about it?" he asked nervously.

"Welllll," I dragged out. "I'm not really sure how to put it, but I think I found out who did it. I looked around and found something, but I don't recognize what it is or who it belongs to. Could you take a look at it for me?" I poked my head around and gave him the most pleading look I could muster without looking like I was trying to hide something. "Please?"

Chris crossed his arms and said, "Nice try, but no. That look won't work on me and I remember what happened last time."

"Pleeeeeeeaaaaasssse??" I pleaded, dragging it out nice and long without it being annoying and widening my smile until my cheeks started hurting. I could just imagine myself having big chibi eyes that sparkled in the light…if this was anime, that is.

"I said no," he responded, raising an eyebrow at me.

Drat. Guess I'll have to go with plan B…

"If you say 'No' again," I started, my smile vanishing as my face became emotionless and I stared at him with a sense of superiority. "Then I'll wiggle my eyebrows."

Chris stiffened at that, his hair rising up somewhat before he went to his knees, his hands in front of him as he begged at me, "NO! Please! Anything but _that!_"

I just grinned triumphantly at him before I looked at the others, who were staring at me in confusion. "……whenever I wiggle my eyebrows it makes him laugh uncontrollably," I explained to them.

"Oh," came the general response from them.

Chris had gotten off of his knees and started to creep forward slowly, looking ready to bolt at the slightest twitch. I just smiled at him, while inside I was grinning evilly. This would definitely get back at him for what he did to me last week.

When he was close enough that we were almost nose to nose, I struck! My hand darted up with the squirming object clenched in it as I brought it up above his head, planning to smack it on top of that gold and black head of his. He stared up at my hand and the object I held with fear as he realized that he had walked into a trap.

_SPLOOSH!_

The room was silent as Chris and I stood still, the remains of the water balloon still stuck to my hand above our heads. I had forgotten that water balloons burst easily when a certain amount of pressure is applied to them. The result of my failed trap was both me and Chris getting soaked with cool water, the balloon having been in the room since yesterday and warming up to a semi-warm semi-cool temperature. Now both my hair and his hair were draped over our faces with strands of hair sticking like tentacles to our skin. Quickstrike wasn't any better off as he hissed in annoyance, water dripping off his scales as he shook his head.

"Well," I started slowly, sounding either disappointed or surprised. "That didn't go as planned."

"I'll say," Chris replied, his eyes completely covered by his bangs. But for some reason, I could still see his green eyes glowing behind those gold and black strands. It was odd, but again, I paid no heed to it as we turned our attention to the group of people in the cabin. There had been a noise that distracted us long enough to stop and listen.

It was _laughter…_

And it was coming from _Dante!_

Said person was laughing like a little kid in a candy store, making buzzing noises every five seconds as he pointed and laughed at our damp selves. "Freckle-bot and zzzzilly-bot funny!" he laughed/buzzed as we stared at him.

Chris and I stared at one another after he said that and we were both silent for a little bit. "Freckle-bot?" I asked him at the same time he said, "Silly-bot?"

We continued to stare at one another for a while as Dante continued laughing, both of us taking in the other's appearance. He looked like a cat that had just gotten out of the tub or something after having fallen in, his normally spiky hair pressed almost flat against his head. I'm pretty sure that my hair looked almost the same way, except that it wasn't in my face since I let my bangs grow out with the rest of the hair.

A few more seconds of staring and we both started giggling, which slowly turned into chuckles and, finally, into full-blown laughter. "Y-You should s-see the l-look on your f-face!" Chris said as he howled with laughter.

"M-Me?" I asked him before I snorted in an attempt to control my laughter, but it was a failed attempt. "Y-You look like a w-wet cat on washin' day! Hahahahaha!!"

Yes, even though one of us gets pranked, we eventually laugh about it later on or right on the spot, depending on the situation. Most of the others just leave us alone or join in the laughter. Although at one point when Danny commented that I sounded like a witch when I laughed, I threw my shoe at him and he ran at the sight of me taking said shoe off.

After we calmed down and changed into a dry set of clothes (and explained to Scoutmaster Jason that I had _found_ the water balloon and did _not _do the prank), we managed to get Dante to come outside with us while Scoutmaster Jason walked back to his office ("I forgot something on my desk," is all that he said to us). For some reason Dante was sticking close to me, but I guess that was because he was still nervous about being here, so I let it slide. Jack left us a while ago after he retrieved his snake from my neck, but for some reason he was scolding the snake when he was a good distance away from us, making it seem like the cobra was able to understand him…

Maybe he was just nuts.

"So, how old are you, Dante?" I asked said kid as he walked close to me, Chris on my other side was we continued our trek around camp. At some point we had gotten some lemonade that some scouts had made and we were happily sipping them. It was the perfect day for such a drink, which also meant that it would be a perfect day to swim!

Dante was silent for the most part, making some more of those strangely adorable yet still weird buzzing noises as he thought it over. His fingers tapped the plastic cup in his hands as he looked around, as if afraid that someone might come and hit him if he said anything. "D-Dante is twe-llvve_,_" he said nervously, talking in third-person for some odd reason as he buzzed the last part.

"Really? Cool, I'm twelve too," I told him just as Chris took a sip of his lemonade.

_Pffft!_

"What?!" Chris yelped as soon as he finished spiting his lemonade on the ground. "You're twelve?" he asked a little more calmly, yet he still sounded shocked.

I stared at him as Dante hid behind me, peeking over my shoulder as he waited for Chris to make any sudden movements. "Um…yeah?" I said slowly, as if he had just asked the dumbest thing in the universe. "What? Did you think I was ten or something?"

Chris just shook his head as he stared at the ground at my feet, apparently still shocked at the news before he answered, "Actually, I thought you were nine. Don't get me wrong," he added quickly, putting his hands in front of him when my jaw dropped in astonishment. "You certainly don't _act_ like you're nine, but you just look so young that I…well…everyone thought…that…you…_shutting up_."

That last part was said meekly as I mildly glared at him, one of my eyebrows twitching slightly in either annoyance or some other emotion. Then, much to his confusion and shock, I started laughing at him. Dante stepped away, watching me warily as I continued laughing. I looked at Chris and, noticing his confusion, told him, "Sorry, but it's just so funny. Quite a few people have said that I looked like I was eleven or even ten years old, but you're the first to say that I look like I'm nine." Giggling again, I added, "I got my mom's gene for looking younger than my actual age. It'll be a pain when looking for a job, but it'll be useful in the future."

He smiled and laughed nervously, but for some reason he didn't look too happy. In fact, he looked extremely worried. He looked like he did that same day we were attacked by _X_. Before I could ask him what was wrong, I caught a whiff of smoke and looked around in confusion. I spotted the source, but it's what I saw that surprised me.

_Another_ kid? Jeez, how many kids are we getting here??

I stared wide-eyed at the new kid, whose strangely silver hair was singed and still smoking, soot covering his face and clothes, startlingly yellow sunglasses covering his eyes, and a huge hole on the front of his shirt. It looked like something exploded in his face and his clothes suffered the most damage. I noticed that he had a hardhat in his hand, which was a gun-metal grey color that had just gotten a new paint-job…with soot.

Following close behind him was Terry, his dark purple hair a much darker shade due to the soot while the yellow tips were just as singed as the new kid's were. There was soot on his cheeks and clothes, but he didn't look as bad as the other. He actually looked pretty mad at him.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to mess with my experiments?" Terry snarled angrily as he tried to brush away the soot on his clothes, sending dark puffs of said powder into the air. "I've been working on that machine for weeks now, and I _don't_ want to have to start all over again because _you_ couldn't keep your claws off it!"

The new kid whirled around and seemed to glare at Terry through those glasses. "It's not my fault, _spider,_" he snapped angrily ("Why does everyone call Terry '_spider?_'" I whispered to Chris, who just shrugged half-heartedly in response). "Lord Mega—." He got smacked on his head from behind before he could finish what he was saying and, when he turned to yell at the one who did it, he and just about everyone in the group froze when we saw who it was.

Scoutmaster Michael.

"Do refrain from calling me by that name while we're here," he growled out, his own purple hair a much lighter shade than Terry's original purple as his red-brown eyes seemed to glow a dull shade of pink (which would have been funny if I wasn't scared of him right now). "I ordered you _both_ to work together on the device, and, apparently, neither of you two are cooperating. Noooo…"

Terry and the new kid stood at attention, neither uttering a word as the scoutmaster talked. I hardly dared moving, lest I risk Scoutmaster Michael turning on me next. Chris and Dante had the same idea, only, Dante was behind me again.

Once he was done scolding them, Scoutmaster Michael pointed to one of the cabins and almost growled, "Now: go and finish the device. I want it done by this afternoon."

"Yes, sir!" Terry and the other kid saluted before they ran off, the hardhat going back over the silver hair as they disappeared from sight. Before they vanished, however, I caught Terry throwing me a curious glance, a suspicious look on his face. I just shrugged it off, not even _wanting_ to know what he was thinking.

When I glanced back at the scoutmaster, my heart nearly stopped when I saw the half-glare half-stare he was sending me. His red-brown eyes were narrowed in a way that almost reminded me of Mr. Demarcus's eyes, but his had a more…_predator_-like look.

Almost like _X_, only, he didn't look as bloodthirsty.

After what felt like an eternity but was actually a few seconds, Scoutmaster Michael turned away and walked back to his office, a thoughtful frown on his face. I just stood there for a while, hardly breathing before Chris started shaking my shoulder. "Lauren? Lauren!" he said, sounding extremely worried. "Snap outta it!"

I started for a moment and shook my head, trying to get rid of the paralyzing fog in my brain before I looked at him, almost in a daze. "Wh-What?" I asked numbly, as if I had just woken up from a dream.

"You're shaking," Chris said softly, his eyes glowing with more concern than before.

He was right: I _was_ shaking. Apparently Scoutmaster Michael had scared me a lot more than I thought. Something had seemed a little…_off_ about him. He looked like he was a hunter and thought me as his prey, but he couldn't pounce. At least, not yet. He was waiting for something to happen. Something that would allow him to strike.

But what? What could he possibly be waiting for??

I shook my head and forced myself to stop shaking, but that still didn't get rid of the chills that I was still getting. "I'm fine," I told him before I turned to Dante. "So, where do you want to go now?"

I heard the nervous tone in my own voice. They could hear it. But I just ignored it and tried smiling, but only one corner of my mouth went up to my cheek while the other was low, which ended up making the side of my face twitch. I hated fake smiles. I couldn't even fake a smile for a picture because it always felt wrong…and looked creepy.

I just hope that the swimming trip to the lake this afternoon will be better.

/_Afternoon_/

"Cannonball!"

_SPLOOSH!_

I resurfaced a few seconds later and shook my head, wiping the water out of my eyes before I looked up at a laughing Chris. He, Dante, and Danny were drenched from the splash that I had caused. "Nice one!" Chris laughed as he and Dante held up a number card, both bearing the number "9.5".

Where those two got the cards I'll never know.

Danny just glared with red-orange eyes as he wiped the water out of his face, apparently not pleased that he had been splashed. "Ya call _dat_ a _splash?_" he asked sarcastically, Chris glaring up at him while I just stared. "I'll show ya a splash!"

I blinked and shrugged before swimming over to Garen so that Danny would have some room. I'm glad that I forced myself to learn how to float in our pool at home before I got to camp, otherwise I'd be doing the doggie-paddle just to stay above the water.

"That was a nice jump," Garen told me as we floated there. "Your splash went past the dock."

"Wow," I replied before I turned my attention to Danny again, who was doing a few stretches. "What kind of dive is he going to do? A cannonball?"

"Nah," Shannon said as she swam over. "He's most likely going to do a can-opener."

I blinked again. '_This otta be good,_' I thought as I watched him curiously. Danny got down in a sprinter's crouch, a look of concentration on his face before he shot forward, his feet pounding on the wooden boards. When he reached the edge, he leapt up, grabbed one of his legs while tucking the other up, and landed in the water.

_SPLASH!_

I raised an arm up to block the droplets as an explosion of water rose up almost twenty feet high or more. He was such a skinny little thing, so how could someone as tall as I am be able to make a twenty foot splash? And he should weigh a lot less if not just as much as me, which is around 97 pounds!

He resurfaced again, shaking the water off as he grinned at me. "_Dat,_" he started smugly as I stared at him, "is how it's done, sista'."

I didn't say anything for a moment before I smiled, nodding in agreement. "I'll say," I said as I turned and started doggie-paddling towards the shore. I stopped when I could touch the sandy bottom and stood up, wringing the water out of my hair as I made my way up to the dock. I sat down in between Chris and Dante and grinned at the others still in the water. I could see what everyone was doing as long as they weren't underneath the docks.

Garen, Danny, and Shannon were chatting with one another, Alexis was floating in one of those pool chairs, Jack and his snake were trying to stay afloat on a giant beach ball but they kept slipping into the water, David was happily doing back-strokes and other swimming maneuvers, Tarry was staying as far away as he could from the shore so that none of the books would attack him, and the drone-like kid, who I found out was called Shane, was flailing about trying to stay afloat.

I don't know why he's in the water if he moves like he can barely swim.

I looked around a bit more, noticing that someone was missing from the group. Two someone's actually. I looked at Chris and asked, "Where's Terry and the other kid with the hardhat?"

He seemed to notice that too and warily looked around. He looked back at me and said, "I can't see them anywhere. I think they're still locked in that cabin that Michael sent them to."

I raised my eyebrow. He's never called one of the scoutmasters by their name only. It was very odd.

"Why Dante'zzz skin burn?" Dante asked in a whiny voice.

I looked at him and saw that his skin was starting to look red. "Oh, you've got a sunburn," I told him, smiling slightly before I looked around, realizing that I had forgotten the sunscreen. "Hold on, I'm going to go get the sunscreen. I'll bring some coco-butter, too, just in case." With that, I got up, grabbed my towel, and walked over to tell Scoutmaster Jason where I was going.

As I walked across the camp grounds, I noticed that everything seemed a little quiet. A little _too_ quiet if you ask me. But I just continued forward, heading in the direction of my cabin to search for the elusive sunscreen and coco-butter. I was about a few feet away form the door before someone grabbed my shoulder and sharply turned me around, making me gasp in shock before I yelled, "Terry!" and smacked him hard on the arm. He didn't even flinch.

Instead, he smiled and said in the creepiest voice I've ever heard, "Ah, Lauren. Just the girl I wanted to see."

I cringed away from him and tried to move away, but he still had a grip on my shoulder. The other kid was behind him, and he was holding some kind of metal ball the size of a basketball. I couldn't even begin to wonder what they would do with that, but I'm afraid that I'm about to find out sooner than I thought. Deciding to get to the point, I asked suspiciously, "What do you want?"

His smile seemed to get a little creepier, which I found hard to believe, as he gestured to the kid with the metal ball. "We just finished our project that Scoutmaster Michael wanted, but we need someone to test it," he said in as innocent a tone as he could manage, but he still sounded creepy. His grip tightened on my shoulder as he continued. "We would have found someone else, but there's nobody else at camp."

"And I just happened to walk by," I deadpanned as I rolled my eyes to the sky. "Just get to the point: what does it do and why do you need it tested?"

"Why," he began, sounding almost offended. "Scoutmaster Michael wanted us to make a device that will track scouts that wander too far from their group or camp. And we need it tested because we need to make sure that it will accept the unique energy signature of a…_person._ Ever since you and your little friend got lost and were attacked by _X,_ he's been concerned about losing any other scouts to another incident such as that."

I stared at him like he was crazy. Something about what he was saying didn't seem right. I could sense that he wasn't telling the truth, but I couldn't figure out what he was trying to hide from me. I didn't get to dwell on that for long as Terry continued on. "We just need you to touch its surface," he said as gently as he could. "Nothing's going to happen. Darin and I have handled it and nothing happened to us, but we need to make sure that it works on someone _other_ than the ones that built it."

I stared/glared at him for a little while longer, glancing at the metal ball in the other kid's—_Darin_, I corrected myself—hands. It seemed harmless enough. It just looked like a big metal ball.

So, what's the harm?

Slowly, I reached out with my right hand towards the metal ball, Darin moving it closer to shorten the distance. Things grew even more silent than before, like I was in another world devoid of any life. The only things that were with me were Terry and the metal ball. Terry seemed to get excited for some odd reason, his grip on my shoulder tightening until it felt like he was digging claws into my skin. My hand was hovering over the surface, barely touching it before—

"Lauren!"

My head shot up at the sound of Chris's frantic voice. Terry growled in annoyance before he grabbed my hand and pressed it against the orb.

_Zzz-ZAP!_ **CRACK!**

"AAA!!" I yelped in shock as painful arcs of electricity shot out of the orb, weaving like snakes up my arm towards my face. I tried to pull away, but it was like my hand was made of metal and the orb was really a giant magnet. I vaguely heard Terry laughing in excitement, but the pain was blocking most of the noise.

I doubled up in pain and gasped, my semi-free arm—_since Terry still had my shoulder in his grip_—wrapping around my middle. There was a burning sensation in my stomach that seemed to grow worse and worse the longer my hand remained stuck to the metal orb. It felt like someone was taking a hot iron glove or something and was trying to rip my innards out while I was still breathing!

Someone suddenly tackled Darin from the side, knocking him and the orb away and my hand was free. Terry was knocked away as well by a familiar form, both of them falling to the gravel and wrestling with one another. My legs buckled as I tried to stand, gasping for air while my right arm hung limply at my side and the other held my still burning stomach. My towel had long since fallen to my feet during the experience. I felt like someone had dragged me to the Pit and then back.

Or more like Megatron or Starscream had landed their big afts on me!

My legs finally gave out on me and I almost fell to the ground in a crumpled heap if something hadn't caught me. Garen's concerned face appeared above me, looking like he had run a mile or something. I couldn't stop the groan of pain as I curled up, willing the burning to go away. It didn't work and just seemed to get worse. My right arm, once again, did not want to cooperate with me and laid on the sharp gravel. For some reason I could feel the skin under my one-piece swimsuit where my stomach was, but I couldn't really think straight at that point.

"—you alright?" I barely managed to hear Garen finish asking.

I tried to open my mouth to speak, but no words would come out. A strange whining noise escaped though before I curled up into an even tighter ball. There were no words to describe the pain I was feeling right now, as it just kept on getting worse and worse than before.

Garen reacted and, once again, I found myself in his arms bridal-style as he rushed in the direction of the nurse's office. It must have taken only a few minutes to get there, but to me, it felt like an eternity before we suddenly burst into the office, startling the nurse, Mr. Drmarcus, and Kaiza as they turned to us. "She's hurt!" Garen told them as he rushed over.

"Give her to me," the nurse ordered and, without wasting any time, rushed into the back room with the others following after. I fought as hard as I could to keep from passing out, but that was proving to be a challenge as I found myself resting on a comfortable surface of sorts. The pain was almost unbearable as I squirmed around, hissing in agony while the nurse tried to pry my arm away from my middle. "Hold still," he grunted as he tried to be gentle and not hurt me even more.

I didn't listen. How could I even sit still if it hurt to do either one?! How-?!

Something gentle touched my head, a voice murmuring something close to my ear, but I couldn't understand it. It was almost like another language, but it also sounded…_mechanical_ in a sense. I forced myself to open one eye and squinted at the figure in front of me. Yellow hair with blue tips caught my attention before dark red-brown eyes stared at me, focusing on my face as he knelt close to me.

"Listen to me, kid," Kaiza whispered sternly. "I want you to look at me and _only_ me, okay? Try to relax. You're in good hands now. Relax…"

'_Relax,_' I thought, tears stinging my eyes as I focused on his face. I was breathing pretty heavily, sounding like I was in labor…minus the baby of course.

The nurse, taking advantage of my distraction, managed to gently pry my arm away from my middle and gasped in shock. I tried looking to see what was wrong, but Kaiza forced me to keep looking at him. The burning was still painful, but it wasn't as bad as before because I was more focused on him. I thought that I heard the nurse saying that he'd have to put me to recharge—_or something along those lines_—before I felt a pin-prick in my arm.

My vision started to swim, my body slowly starting to shut down as whatever was injected into me took effect. Everything was a swirl of color, but Kaiza still remained in focus. My eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and, for one brief moment, Kaiza's face faded and was replaced with a more robotic face, red optics glowing brightly as they watched me. Then, the robot face was replaced with that of a human.

Wha-…?

/_P.O.V. Off_/

Kaiza straightened up when Lauren finally fell asleep, turning to face the nurse as he put the needle back in a tray. Mr. Demarcus, who was usually frowning or glaring at something or another, was uncharacteristically shocked, as if he had just seen a ghost. Garen was equally stunned as he stared at the hole that was in Lauren's swimsuit. He took a look himself and blinked, staring at the strange sight in front of him.

Right in the middle of her stomach, around her belly button, was a black spiral that spun counter-clockwise before it ended a few inches above the starting point. Around the swirl were eight Japanese symbols, but as to what they meant he couldn't tell for sure.

But all the same, it looked _ominous…_

"Rhinox," Mr. Demarcus started, turning to look at the nurse as he sat next to the unconscious girl. "Is that…?"

'_Rhinox_' sighed in exhaustion as he lightly trailed a finger over the swirl. It was like a tattoo on her skin. "I'm afraid so, Dinobot," he finally said, regret clear in his voice. "Ever since her arm healed itself so quickly, I had prayed to Primus that it wasn't her…a child as sweet as her shouldn't have to go through all this."

Silence filled the room for a while, each one in their own thoughts as they stared at the sleeping form. Finally, Rhinox stood up, grabbing a blanket and covering Lauren's body. As he walked over to the door, he motioned Garen to follow him. "I need you to find Chris and the others…and tell them that we've found who we've been looking for," he said slowly as they stepped outside. "I'll talk to Prime about this."

"But," Garen started. "What about the Predacons? What if they find out?"

Rhinox didn't say anything for a while as a few kids ran by, one of them chasing the other with a water balloon while the other had a squirt gun. "She'll be safe with Dinobot and Depth Charge," he said at last, rubbing his temples as he felt a headache coming on. "It's the best we can do for now."

Garen said nothing as he nodded, about to split away from Rhinox and search for the others. "Oh, and one more thing," Rhinox added, causing him to stop and look at him. "Tell Chris to get a shirt and a pair of pants for Lauren. I have a feeling she's going to need them when she wakes up."

Garen nodded and turned back towards the cabins where the others would most likely be by now.

Rhinox sighed as he turned and headed towards Scoutmaster Jason's office. Once he arrived, he stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what he was going to say. Finally, he knocked on the door, entering when a voice bid him entry. Sitting at his desk, Jason watched him as he made his way over, curious as to what had happened after he had dismissed the campers from the lake. "Rhinox," he said slowly, noticing his friend's troubled look. "Is something wrong?" Rhinox didn't say anything for a minute before he sighed and stared at the scoutmaster.

"Optimus, we need to talk…"

Outside, a figure listened in as the two discussed the issue, a malicious grin slowly forming on his face with each word. '_I have you now,_' the figure thought triumphantly before he disappeared.

/_P.O.V. On: Lauren_/

I don't know how long I slept, but apparently it was what I needed as I woke up and felt only a dull ache in my abdomen. I stared at my surroundings, trying to figure out where I was and what had happened as I kept the blanket I found wrapped around my shoulders. When I saw a tray and some medical supplies in it, I remembered that I was in the nurse's office.

…_again…_

Sighing in irritation, I sat up on the soft bedding I was on and swung my legs around so that they were dangling over the edge. What had happened before? When I had touched that orb? It just seemed so strange that something like that could cause so much pain. And yet…

Something about it wasn't right. It wasn't…_human-made._ It looked too smooth for something made by two boys, even if they were geniuses. It was almost like it was…

_Alien._

I shook my head at that logic that my brain threw at me. It just couldn't happen. I mean, even if those two _were_ aliens disguised as humans, why would they take the time, let alone the interest, to go undercover just to hurt an uninteresting girl like me with an electrical ball?

…then again…with all the weird things that have been happening to me during my stay here at camp, I don't see why it's not possible…

"I lead a _weird_ life," I grumbled as I rubbed my head. I blinked when I realized that I was in my clothes now. I was wearing a plain light blue shirt and a pair of pants that slightly went past my ankles. I even had my socks and shoes on!

I felt the little voice in my head complaining that someone had seen me naked while I was out cold. But something didn't feel right. Cautiously, I lifted my shirt…and found my swimsuit underneath. I sighed in relief even though another little voice was complaining about the big hole in the middle of it. At least whoever had done this had only put the clothes overtop my swimsuit instead of taking it off.

I'd have mauled that person if that had happened.

Carefully removing the blanket, I slowly stood up, my left hand reaching out to catch the nearest thing in case I fell. My right arm was a little more responsive now, but it hurt to move it around too much. I nodded when I felt certain that no dizzy-spells were going to happen and walked towards the door, hoping to find the nurse and talk to him. Just as I reached the door, I heard several voices on the other side that made me pause. It was Mr. Demarcus, Kaiza, and Scoutmaster Michael.

And _none of them_ sounded like they were talking about the weather.

"I'm afraid that I must insist," Scoutmaster Michael was saying quite loudly. "The experiment is Decepticon property and, therefore, belongs to the Predacons."

"_She_ is_ not_ property!" I heard Mr. Demarcus snap angrily.

"The Decepticons lost their experiment years ago and failed their search to retrieve it," I heard Kaiza pick up just as angrily. "They gave up their search, and, therefore, she is no longer a part of that the Great War…nor will she be a part of our war!"

The next voice that spoke up sent chills up and down my spine, my heart beating faster and faster as the voice started speaking. "What's wrong, old friend?" _X_'s voice said in amusement. "Afraid that the little one will end up dead just like the people of Omicron?"

"_**Shut up!**_" Kaiza roared angrily.

"Why? Afraid that she'll hear us?" _X_ asked innocently. Then, his voice turned smug as he said, "As if it would make much of a difference. She's already awake."

I froze as I realized that he was talking about _me._ _I'M_ the one that they're talking about!

"Attack!" Scoutmaster Michael shouted, somehow sounding a lot different than before. "And leave the girl to me."

Something inside me told me to move away from the door…_fast!_ My legs moved on their own as I dashed off to one side of the room and away from the door.

**SMASH! **_**CRUNCH!**_

I screamed in fear as the door suddenly exploded, two _humongous_ forms rolling into the room. I stepped closer to the wall as they thrashed about, exchanging blows and cursing at each other in familiar yet strangely mechanical voices. There was a grunt in the room that they had just exited before something smashed into a wooden table. I looked back at the entrance and froze.

Standing in the middle of the new opening was a gigantic purple robot with pink-red optics, a strange metal reptile tail on his right arm, and a strange head in the center of his chest. He seemed to be watching the fight going on in the middle of the room before he looked around, trying to find something. His optics locked on once he spotted me off to the side, his eyes narrowing as he grinned in triumph.

My heart seemed to stop beating as my body stiffened, refusing my brain's commands to run for safety. I couldn't look away from those optics. It was almost like they had a paralyzing effect on me. It was nearly impossible to breathe as he took a step towards me, the wood from what had once been the door crunching underneath his weight.

When he spoke, I nearly passed out from fright. "Hello, little one," he hissed in Scoutmaster Michael's voice, sounding like he had just cornered his prey…which he had. "Just stay where you are and don't try to run away."

My body started shaking when he reached out, frightened beyond all belief as his hand got closer and closer. Before it could close around my neck, something wrapped around _his_ neck and pulled him back, causing him to stumble backwards as he yelled out in surprise. A blue-faced head appeared over his shoulder and looked at me, snarling in Mr. Demarcus's voice, "Don't just stand there, run! I can't hold him off forever!"

Something in me snapped and my legs suddenly propelled me forward, darting between their legs and out the opening. I ran out of the entrance and exited the building and ran as fast as I could. A few of the other scouts stared at me in confusion before they turned back to their activities. As I rounded the corner, I ran into Tarry, who still wore that football helmet, and both of us went down.

Alexis was standing over us in bemusement as I scrambled up, looking back the way I came in fear that the giant robots were chasing me. "Whoa, slow down there, Blondie," she said as I shot her a look of intense fear. "Where's the fire? Did Shane find a flamethrower and burn something again?"

I opened and closed my mouth a few times, but I couldn't speak as I shook wildly. Finally, I managed to say one word: "R-Robots!" I said frantically, pointing in the direction I had come from before turning to her again. "G-Giant robots! Th-They sounded like Scoutmaster M-Michael, K-Kaiza, Mr. Dem-marcus, and _X!_"

Her black eyes widened in surprise while Tarry slowly stood up, taking the helmet off of his head as he stared at me. I tried saying something else, but a sudden roar split the air. It sounded like one of those T-Rex roars that you hear on Jurassic Park, but it sounded a _**lot **_scarier. There were screams from the other campers as they ran by, some yelling nonsense while others just scrambled to get away from whatever was rampaging forward.

_In our direction!!_

"Oh jeez!" I gasped as I cautiously peeked around the corner. A giant mechanical T-Rex stomped out of the nurse's office, taking some of the roof with it and shouldering it off as it continued moving. As it lumbered forward, multiple thoughts darted through my mind as I watched it move, only one thought managing to speak out above the others besides the one that said '_We're gonna DIE!!_':

'_Why does it look like a monster version of Barney??_'

"Predacons!" the giant T-Rex roared, rearing his head to the sky. "The experiment has been found! Track down and seize the human named Lauren!"

'_Crap!_' I thought as I ducked back behind the cabin again, staring at the others as they stood nearby, shocked looks on their faces as they stared at me. They looked at each other for a moment before they looked at me again. "Um…guys?" I started. "I think we should get outta here!"

However, they didn't move. Instead, their eyes seemed to glow strangely, glowing brighter and brighter until they completely concealed their human eyes. I blinked at them curiously, dread slowly building up in my chest as they stood up straight. A sudden flash of purple light shot out from them, causing me to shield my face from the intense brightness. When I dared to peek out, I nearly screeched in shock and fear at the sight.

Two more giant robots stood tall above me, one of them red and silver while the other was yellow and black with what appeared to be the legs of some kind of spider and _very_ deadly-looking claws. Even though they were robots, I could still tell that the red one that had been Tarry was male while the one that had been Alexis was female.

Neither of them looked friendly at all. Only one thing to do in this situation: scream and run.

"AAAAAA!!" I screeched as I turned tail and shot out from behind the building like a bullet. The adrenaline rush that suddenly filled my veins made my body move fast enough to dart past the mechanical T-Rex's legs when he came to investigate the noise I had made. There was a bird-like screech and the sound of twisting metal. I turned my head around and yelped when I saw what, to my disbelief, was a long extinct pterodactyl with the same red skin as the red robot from before.

_And it was headed straight for me!!_

"Holy _slag!_" I yelled as I picked up the pace, running faster than I've ever run before. I spotted Dante, Darin, and Shane nearby, looking around for something and seemingly unconcerned about anything that was currently happening or the giant dinosaur chasing after me. "What are you three standing around for?!" I yelled at them, making them turn their attention to me. "Can't you see what's goin'—?!"

Their eyes started to glow, making me almost freeze as another flash of purple light covered them, slowly fading away to reveal even _more_ robots! One of them, who had been Shane, looked like a giant red ant-like creature, another that had been in Darin's place looked like a giant scorpion (the tail and claws gave it away), and the last one that had been in Dante's spot looked just like I thought he did, one giant, green wasp!

"GAH!!" I yelped as I made a sharp turn and darted between two cabins, a screech of surprise trailing behind me before there were four screams and—

_**CLANG! **_**BANG! **_**BAM!**_** BOOM!!**

I didn't dare look back, but I could only guess that the dino-bird crashed into the other three before they could move away. The only thing that I was more worried about right now was how many more robots there were. A blur of yellow and black appeared before it grabbed my arm, making me yell in shock as I struggled to get away.

"Lauren!" Chris's voice said firmly, the grip on my arm tightening as they grabbed my other arm, Chris's face appearing as he stared at me.

"Chris!" I exclaimed as I glomped him, holding him tightly as I cried against his chest. "Chris, what's going on? The others are turning into giant robots and Scoutmaster Michael was one of them! He said something about me being an experiment and Decepticons and how I belonged to the Predacons!"

"It's okay," he said gently, sounding nervous as he held me closer, offering me as much comfort as he could at the moment. "Everything's going to be alright now."

A low chuckle reached my ears, making me stiffen as I looked around. "Tee-hahaha, yesss, everything will be alright soon," Terry's voice chuckled as he appeared out of the shadows. But, instead of the human boy I had been expecting to appear, _another_ giant robot stomped out, mechanical spider-like legs on his shoulders and multiple green spider eyes dotting his chest and forehead. The mandibles moved as he laughed again and spoke once more. "Once you're back within Predacon hands, we'll make sure that you are _well_ taken care of."

"Not a chance, Chuckles!" Chris snapped as he grabbed my arm, saying, "Lauren, run!" and he started pulling me away, moving surprisingly fast as we hauled our afts outta there.

"Oh no you don't," '_Terry_' called after us. "Tarantulas, _terrorize!_"

More shifting metal reached me as we moved, Chris seeming to run faster now as he tightened his grip on my arm. I looked behind us to see what had made him move faster…and gasped at the sight of the motorcycle…with _spider legs on the sides._ It was the same color as the mech before, but it still looked more like a mad-scientist's creation.

And _man_, did it look _ugly!_

"What's wrong, human? Don't you want to play with uncle Tarantulas?" the spider-cycle laughed as he picked up some more speed. "You can't run forever!"

"Back off, creep!" Chris shouted over his shoulder before he looked forward again. I noticed that Danny and Garin were running towards us, the camp nurse following after them. Chris seemed to notice too and called out, "Silverbolt! Rattrap! Rhinox! Get him off our tails!"

"Ya got it, kid!" Danny responded as he and the nurse dove forward, almost like they had tripped.

But instead of falling, a red flash of light exploded out from his body as it did with Garin and the nurse. When it cleared, there was a _huge rat_ on _wheels_ rolling towards us at high speeds, a wolf-like robot with wings, and a rhino charging at full force towards our pursuer. The wolf-bot shifted his wings forward, pointing the tips of them towards the spider-vehicle before firing, much to my shock and amazement, _missiles_.

_**BOOM!!**_

"AAA!!" Tarantulas yelled as the explosions knocked him off balance, shifting to the side so that he was skidding along the gravel and sending up a spray of stones and dust. The rhino, however, didn't give him a chance to recover and rammed its head into his side. "WAAAA!!" he screeched as he went flying.

Man, he's probably all the way on the other side of camp from that head butt by now!

I couldn't cheer right now as the rat-on-wheels, which somehow reminded me of the first day I got here and found that toy mouse, suddenly braked in front of us as Chris stopped me from running any further. The giant rodent lifted its head to us and, _surprise surprise_, spoke in a Brooklyn accent. "Need a lift?" it—_he_, as it sounded male—said in amusement.

Eyes widening, I looked at Chris and saw him smiling at the rat, as if he was about to accept the rat's offer. "Chris," I snapped, catching both his and the rat's attention while the wolf-bot stood guard over us, looking for anymore of those '_Predacons_'. "_What_ is going on around here? Why is everyone turning into giant robots all of a sudden?"

"'Ey," the rat spoke up, drawing our attention again. "If you think we're big, you should see the Boss Monkey!"

'_Boss Monkey?_' I wondered in bemusement.

"Anyway," the rat continued. "Da name's _Rattrap._ As for what's goin' on…well, I just don' think dat there's enough time ta explain it all."

Chris shook his head. "We gotta hurry!" he growled before he turned me around and firmly grabbed my shoulders. "Lauren, do you trust me?"

I stared at him, uncertain of what to say. "Do you trust me?" he asked again, a little more forcefully. Slowly, I nodded. "Then get on Rattrap's back," he said, nodding towards the rat once more. "He'll take care of you."

"But what about you?" I asked before I could stop myself. "Aren't you coming with me?"

"I can't. The Predacons will be looking for you, so they'll look for me first, because we're friends," he said sadly. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. Silverbolt and Rhinox are with me: they'll help me distract the others while Rattrap gets you to safety. Do you understand?"

I said nothing for a few seconds, staring at him for a while before looking at Rattrap, who seemed to be getting a little edgy. "Com' on, com' on, hurry up already!" he was muttering as he looked up at the sky. I looked back at Chris and nodded, moving towards Rattrap when Chris let me go. Rattrap held still as I climbed onto his back, his spear-tipped tail hovering above me as I wrapped my arms around the metal neck. "Hang on," he warned me as he started to turn in a direction. "It's gonna get _bumpy!_"

"Whoa!" I yelled as he shot off, my body automatically pressing itself tighter against his back as the cabins flashed by in a blur. Even though I was riding on the back of a giant rat, it didn't feel any different than riding a horse…except you didn't have a saddle and the only thing keeping you on were your arms and legs.

"Hang on!" Rattrap told me before he made a _really_ sharp turn, rolling only on two wheels as he dodged around a cabin and headed towards the mountain trail. He landed on all '_fours_' again and moved even faster than before. It got so terrifying that I had to close my eyes and tightened my grip so hard, I thought that I was cutting off the air-supply of the robot!

Wait…if it's a robot, does it even _need_ to breathe?

"Kid! Loosen up, will ya? It's hard ta drive with ya holdin' my neck like dat!"

…never mind, I don't think I wanna know.

I loosened my grip on his neck and opened my eyes, fearing that if I kept my eyes closed, I'd fall off and get hurt really badly…or possibly killed. A flash out of the corner of my eye caught my attention as I looked up at the trees. Almost as soon as I looked, something struck Rattrap in the side.

"YAAAA!!"

"YAAAA!!"

Those two yells were from Rattrap getting struck by the object (which, fortunately, missed my leg) and me getting knocked off of his back, both of us tumbling into the ground and landing a good distance from one another. Surprisingly, I didn't get hurt in the landing, but I couldn't say the same for Rattrap. He was glowing rather oddly, his tail thrashing this way and that as he struggled on the ground. But that's not what worried me…

It was the _huge_ black widow spider scuttling towards me that had me scrambling backwards.

'_SLAG!_' I thought as I turned around, my feet slipping on the gravel as I tried to gain my footing before I shot off. The spider chased after me faster than I could move my legs, shortening the distance between us as I ran up the mountain path. I could barely hear Rattrap yelling at me to keep running before I was too far away to hear him anymore.

The hair on the back of my neck started prickling wildly, feeling like there were thousands of tiny needles sticking into my skin. It became even wilder the further up the trail I went, almost like a warning of some sort. I felt a strong sensation pulling me to the left, so I made a sharp turn and went left.

_SQUAWK!_

**BAM!**

I glanced behind me and saw the red pterodactyl with his head sticking into the ground, his wings flapping wildly to try and get out of the ground. The black widow had one of its legs caught where the big dino-bird had crashed, screeching obscene things at it while scrabbling for better footing.

"You _idiot!_" the widow screeched as I moved further into the trees. "You're letting her get away!"

I looked forward again, my chest burning painfully as I gasped for breath. It was getting harder to breathe now from all the running.

The prickling sensation came back again, except it was stronger than before. I suddenly felt something striking me from behind, knocking me to the ground as I yelped in shock.

_Thud!_

I struggled underneath the sudden weight as if pinned me to the ground, trying unsuccessfully to get up. I couldn't really move all that much, but at least I could move my head around. There were large blue ropes over my head and stuck to the ground, glowing a poisonous blue color as I struggled to get off the ground. It was almost like these ropes were part of…

…_a spider web…_

"Tehehehahaha," a familiar and creepy voice laughed, sending shivers through my spine. "Like I said before: you can't run forever."

Slowly, I turned my head around, staring up fearfully at Tarantulas as he stood over me. He was giggling excitedly as he reached down, his three fingers outstretched menacingly as it got closer and closer. "You can't escape now," he hissed in amusement when I tried to shrink into the ground.

I shut my eyes, waiting for the hand to close around my neck and…

* * *

**A/N: This isn't exactly how I imagined it to end it in my mind, but it'd have made the chapter even longer and, therefore, would have taken a lot longer to put up.** **Again, I'm sorry about leaving you guys hanging like that for a while. I hope you enjoyed this, and I hope that you can be kind enough to leave a review. The ideas you have all given me have helped me create this chapter! Don't hesitate to give ideas, as I will look at them as inspiration for future chapters!**


	7. Capture?

**A/N: IMPORTANT NOTICE!!! PLEASE READ!!!**

**Due to the fact that I'm leaving tomorrow for basic training, I won't be able to update this story anytime soon. I wrote as much as I could, but lack of time and my muses disappearing on me kept me from completeing this chapter where I wanted it to end. Hopefully this'll keep you guys busy for a little while...although 7 months of both Basic and Advanced training might be a long time. **

**Anyway, I hope you all have a safe and wonderful time, and that you enjoy what's written here! Dinobot? Do the disclaimer please!**

**Dinobot: G'reth the Air Dragon does _not_ own any of the Maximals or Predacons. She owns only herself. (glares at me) Now if you wouldn't mind, kindly leave me out of your little narrations. (stalks away)**

* * *

**A Camping Trip with the Beast Warriors**

_Chapter 7: Ancient Evil Unleashed_

The forest was alive with activity, the birds chirping their cheerful songs to the world, insects flitting in the breeze or crawling upon various surfaces, and even deer were munching grass in a large meadow. It seemed like nature and all its creatures were oblivious to the chaos reigning back at the campsite. It was almost as if there was an impenetrable peace in the timeless forest.

One young deer, whose horns were merely stumps, wandered away from his mother and sister, heading towards some greener grass on the other side of a small stream. Carefully putting one hoof in the trickling water, the small buck leaned forward and sniffed at a few wild-flowers. They smelled really sweet. He cautiously took a pink one in his mouth and began chewing, allowing the wonderful taste to linger before he swallowed. Maybe his sister would enjoy one of these too!...but maybe another wouldn't hurt. So, reaching down to get another flower for himself, he was about to grab it in his teeth before he froze.

A pair of large, white paws stood in front of the flower that the had been about to eat, brownish-black stripes crisscrossing around the wide legs as the young deer slowly lifted his gaze up into a cat-like face. Bright green eyes stared back at him with the same kind of look the young one had seen in a human once, a kind smile somehow settled upon its muzzle as it stood tall and proud before him.

The young deer had seen a mountain lion before, even though it was at a distance, but this cat was unlike anything that he'd ever encountered before in his life! But for some reason the stripes reminded him of one of his chipmunk friends, except they were all over this creature's body, not just on its back.

A low, rumbling purr startled the young deer as the strange cat made the same strange noises as the humans he had seen make. "Enjoying the greenery, my young friend?" the cat was saying, even though the poor thing couldn't understand a single word it said.

His mother called out to him in panic, making him turn and bolt away from the frighteningly large cat and follow after his mother and sister. They flashed their white tails at the cat before they vanished under the cover of the trees.

The white tiger hadn't moved from his spot, watching the deer run as he stood there for a while. Then, it started looking around, seeming to take in its surroundings and everything in it. Finally, it turned its attention to the sky and saw a giant bird circling overhead. "Airazor!" it called up to the great bird in a male voice. "Do you see anything, yet?"

The bird, which turned out to be an extremely large peregrine falcon, hovered above the meadow as it scoured the area, searching for something only it knew about. "Nothing yet," it called back down in a feminine voice. "I'll fly higher and comm. you if I see anything."

"Just be careful," the white tiger called back as it began to follow the retreating bird, its giant paws carrying it gracefully forward.

Up above, the falcon searched the ground underneath it as it flapped its great wings to get more distance between it and the trees. "Airazor" flew with natural avian grace as she scoured for something unusual. Suddenly, she spotting something and braked, flapping her wings to hover in place.

Far below, trudging along a hidden forest path, a spider-like robot carried a blue cyberweb underneath one of its arms. She recognized the form squirming in the spider's arm as a young human girl. There was a bit of static before the falcon started to speak to the air. "Tigatron," Airazor said aloud. "I've found them; Tarantulas has her with him."

"Location?" came the tiger's voice from seemingly nowhere.

"About thirty feet from your location," the falcon replied when she spotted the white form. "He's straight ahead."

"Thanks, Airazor, I'm on it," Tigatron responded as he quickly crept forward, taking care to make as little noise as possible.

Up ahead, Tarantulas was giggling to himself as Lauren squirmed under his arm. He was amused at how the tiny human was trying to escape him, despite being trapped within that web. "Struggle as much as you like," he chuckled evilly as he tightened his hold on the girl. "You won't be able to get out of that web. Even if you somehow did, you certainly wouldn't be able to outrun me."

The human growled and grunted as she tried to escape, muttering Cybertronian curses under her breath which made Tarantulas raise an optic-ridge at. He'd figure out how she knew all those words later. Right now it was time to get her back to the lair an—

_Snap!_

"Huh?" the spider gasped as he whirled around, his yellow visor widening as he searched for the source of the noise. "Who's there?" he called out as he drew a gun out of subspace.

Much to his relief, the human had stopped struggling as soon as the noise sounded off. They waited in dead silence for a while, the only sound being Lauren's breathing and the wind rustling the leaves on the trees. All of the birds had gone silent, their songs lost in the wind. Tarantulas jerked when the bushes started making rustling noises, raising his blaster to shoot at whatever came out. A few seconds later, a rabbit crept from under the brush, sniffing shyly at some cloves before nibbling at them.

Grumbling in annoyance, Tarantulas put his weapon back into subspace and turned around. "Just a stupid Earth-vermin," he muttered as he made to move forward, the girl turning her head around as best as she could to continue looking over her shoulder.

_Snap!_ **Crunch!**

"What the-?!" Tarantulas yelped as he turned around once more.

**RAWR!**

"AAA!!" the spider screeched as a large white form tackled him to the ground, the captive human rolling away from them as Tarantulas reached out to grab her again. He soon had to focus more on trying to keep the tiger from biting his neck, the tiger's claws raking at his armor and leaving large gashes in the metal. "_Get off me!_" he shouted as he struggled to push the big cat off of him. The cat merely ignored him and snarled, the hair rising on the back of its neck as it whacked its paws over his head.

Several feet away, Lauren was watching the procession with awe, fascination and fear, completely rooted, almost quite literally because of the net, to her landing spot. "What's a tiger doing in the forest?" she whispered softly, clutching at her chest as her heart pounded against her ribcage. "And in _Colorado??_"

_Thud!_

Startled by the light noise behind her, Lauren's head snapped around and she gasped in fear when she saw another robot standing above her. This one was just as feminine as the black-widow spider-bot had been, but this one looked more like a tomboy than the other. Lauren took note of the large bird head that made up most of the robot's chest and a pair of wings attached to its back.

Staring softly at the frightened girl, Airazor kneeled down to be less intimidating and said softly, "It's alright. I'm not going to hurt you."

"Who are you?" Lauren asked fearfully, afraid that this one would be like the purple T-Rex or any of the other strange robots trying to take her captive.

"My name is Airazor," the bird-bot replied gently. "And I'm a Maximal, one of the good guys." At the girl's confused look, she elaborated and said, "The Maximals are the descendants of the Autobots, whereas the Predacons are the descendants of the Decepticons." Glancing up at the fighting pair, she turned her attention back to the girl and said, "Listen, there's not a lot of time to explain this to you, but I need to get you out of here. I'm not sure how much longer Tigatron can hold that spider back. Do you trust me?"

Lauren's eyes widened slightly as the words echoed in her head. An image of Chris appeared in her mind when he had told her to get on Rattrap's back. "'_Do you trust me?_'" his words echoed as he stared firmly at her.

Slowly, she nodded and watched as Airazor began to snap the webbing apart. Before long she found herself standing in front of Airazor, shaking the last bit of webbing off her foot. "Come on," the bird-bot said as she picked the young girl up, who squeaked in surprise at the sudden lift in the air. Holding her as gently as she could, Airazor said, "We need to get to someplace safe."

"I don't think so."

Both human and robot looked up at the sudden voice, seeing Tarantulas standing over a wounded Tigatron with his gun pointed at the tiger's head. "Tigatron!" Airazor called out in shock, taking a step forward and drawing her blaster.

"Stay away!" Tigatron hissed, stopping the avian in her tracks. "We have to keep the human sa—_oof!_"

"Quiet you!" Tarantulas snapped, stomping his foot against the back of the tiger's neck where he had kicked him. Turning to Airazor, he said, "If you don't want your precious little lover-bot to become scrap-metal, then I suggest that you hand over the girl."

Airazor stared at the mad scientist with a mixture of anger and worry as she looked from him to Tigatron to the human, who looked up at her worriedly. "Stop dilly-dallying and hand over the human!" Tarantulas all but yelled as he pressed the barrel of the gun against Tigatron's head. Airazor glared at him for a moment before suddenly smirking. "What are you smiling about?!" Tarantulas snapped angrily, annoyed beyond reason at the delay.

"Oh, nothing," Airazor said in amusement. "But I'm sure my friend behind you can give you a reason."

If robots could turn pale, then Tarantulas would be as white as a ghost as he turned around and stared fearfully up at the imposing figure behind him. Lauren thought she heard him squeak in a tiny voice, "_Help,_" before the figure grabbed him by the face. Airazor's hand immediately covered her eyes when Tarantulas started screaming, telling her that, "This ain't gonna be pretty," and leaving her to hear the sounds of a serious beating taking place.

**BAM!**

"No! _Not the face!_"

_CRUNCH!!_

"_AAAA!_ My _LEG!!_"

_**KAPOW!**_

"_AAIEEEEEE!!_"

**WHACK!**

"_**AAAAAAA—!!**_"

**BOOM!!**

A moment of silence passed before Airazor took her hand away, allowing Lauren her visibility back. What she saw was the blue-faced robot from earlier dusting his hands off, a lump of sparking wires and torn metal twenty feet away from him making moaning noises. The raptor-like robot turned towards them and growled slowly, "Looks like the spider will be spending quite a few megacycles in the CR tanks."

"Thanks for your help, Dinobot," Airazor said as she walked over to Tigatron, who transformed into his robot mode and rubbed a sore spot on his head. Lauren was staring at the lump with wide eyes, sinking a little lower into Airazor's arms.

(_P.O.V. on: Lauren_)

This was _not_ how I had planned my day. I had wanted to play with my friends at the lake, look for butterflies with David, play another game of tag with Chris, and so many other things. Getting chased by giant robots that had once been my human friends (well, most of them) had _definitely_ not been part of my plans. Now I'm being _saved_ by a couple of them???

Well, it's better than being with Tarantulas…_that creep!_

Glancing behind me at the pile of wires that had once been the mechanical spider, I gave a shudder and looked back at the blue-faced robot named Dinobot, who had transformed into a Velociraptor earlier and was walking on the trail ahead of us. I was sitting on Tigatron's back as he followed the raptor, Airazor flying overhead as lookout. I couldn't quite place it, but for some reason, each of them reminded me of someone from camp. The raptor reminded me of Mr. Demarcus (_mostly because of his yellow eyes and pale stripes_), the tiger reminded me of David because of his calm demeanor, and the peregrine falcon reminded me of Shannon because of how she acted.

Shaking my head slightly, I looked around the forest in an attempt to distract myself. It was hard enough accepting the fact that most of my '_friends_' were giant robots, but it was even harder to think that everyone I knew could be one of them.

Although that would've explained Anna. She wasn't even human anyway, so it shouldn't have surprised me in the least.

I was suddenly jerked from my thoughts when Tigatron spoke up. "How are you doing up there, youngling?" he asked kindly as he turned his head slightly to look at me.

Not quite recognizing the term '_youngling_,' I nodded that I was doing okay, still feeling uncomfortable with the idea of talking to a tiger if it was going to respond back. He seemed to understand as he nodded and turned his head back around. I thought I heard Dinobot give a low snort, but it was hard to tell if he was annoyed or smelling the air and caught a whiff of something nasty. "We're almost there," he snarled as he glanced over his shoulder. "The faster we move, the sooner we can get the girl back to the safety of the base."

'_Base?_' I thought to myself when my throat refused to say it aloud. It just seemed so weird to hear him talk about a base…is it in a cave or something? Or is it invisible?

…what? If there are animals that transform into robots or robots that transform into animals, then there's bound to be some sort of cloaking shield on a base like in those Sci-Fi movies! It'd make sense…

A few minutes passed as we walked silently, trying not to attract attention to ourselves. The robots/animals were taking extra precautions to make sure that the area was safe, but that didn't ease the tension in the air. I doubt the Predacons were anywhere near here anyway, so I didn't see the whole poi—

Tigatron turned his head around to look at me when I stiffened and asked, "What's wrong, youngling?"

I didn't respond as they stopped and stared at me, my eyes scanning the woods surrounding us. For some reason, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end again, like that time that the red pterodactyl had crashed into that spider when I dodged them both or when Tarantulas had snuck up on me. Something was definitely wrong here, but I didn't know what……I just knew that something…or some_one_ was out there………

"We are wasting time," Dinobot snarled impatiently as I continued to look around fearfully. "If we don't pick up the pace, then the Predacons will be on us before we even know—"

He didn't get to finish his sentence.

"AH!!" I screamed in fear as I somehow fell off of Tigatron's back, scrambling backwards as I stared up at the dark shadow that suddenly appeared behind the raptor. At the sight of my reaction, he snapped his head around before he was suddenly knocked away by a large hand back-slapping him. He crashed into a tree and laid there, as still as death.

Almost exactly the same way Chris had gotten hurt last time.

Tigatron wasted no time as he jumped backwards and transformed, standing protectively in front of me as he aimed his weapon at the intruder. "Stay away from the youngling, Rampage_,_" he growled at the huge robot. "I will not let you hurt her!"

A deep, sinister chuckle filled every part of my body with dread as I hid behind the green and white tiger-bot's legs. "Hurt her?" _X_, or Rampage, asked in amusement. "I would not dream of such a thing! I was merely going to ask if she wanted to know what her spark looked like…outside of her body. Muahahahaha!"

His laugh was even _worse!_

"When I give the signal," I heard Tigatron whisper as he stepped back, leaning in slightly so he was closer. "Run. Run as fast as you can and don't stop. Airazor and I will hold him off as long as possible."

I stared up at him in confusion, but I nodded anyway and prepared for a sprint.

"Now," _X_ continued in a sickly sweet voice as he looked _directly at me._ "Come with me, _child_, and I'll make sure that it'll be as painless as humanely possi—"

"_RUN!!_" Tigatron shouted as he fired a shot, which struck the behemoth right in the face and caused him to roar in pain. I only paused for a split second before I darted off, running into the trees and off the trail to make it more difficult for him to give chase. There was more blaster-fire along with the sound of a bird-of-prey screeching, but it quickly faded away as I continued running, literally, for my life.

It seemed like an hour had passed before I finally stopped running, but it turned out to have been fifteen minutes, which wasn't really enough time to get away while running on just adrenaline. Leaning against one of the trees, I panted heavily as I tried to get my breath back again. '_I've really gotta exercise more,_' I thought to myself as I looked at my surroundings.

Much to my surprise, it was the same clearing that Chris and I had gotten lost in a week or two ago…and met _X_, who had been human back then. It looked untouched, the blood that had been spilled there now completely gone from sight. I was confused as I wondered why I had ended up back here in the first place.

A glint in the center suddenly caught my attention.

"Hm?" I uttered as I moved closer. To my surprise, it was a knife…covered in dry human blood. It was _X'_s knife…from that day I got cut on the arm. "I thought he'd have come back for it," I muttered as I knelt down and picked it up.

Surprisingly, it wasn't that heavy, nor was it that big. It actually seemed to be smaller than I remembered it to be. Looking around, I lifted my shirt up so that I could see my belt and carefully placed the weapon in-between it and my hip to where I thought it wouldn't cut me if I ran.

"No sense in being defenseless," I whispered to myself as I made sure that my shirt concealed the tool. "Even if it did hurt me in the past…"

"_Lauren?_"

Startled, I was about to turn around at Chris's familiar voice to smile at him, but my smile fell away into shock and fear at what I saw. Standing there was Chris, but he was turned away from me and staring at another figure.

He was staring at _me._ Or at least, what I _thought_ was me as they stood in a swirl of floating leaves.

"_Did you-_," Chris said, startling me at the sound of his echoing voice. "_Have you ever experienced things that you couldn't explain, even if you tried to make sense of it yourself?_"

Stepping back slightly, I stared at the scene that I now recognized as the day we discovered my leg had healed itself. It was strange to see everything being played out in front of me again, but…for some reason, there was something different about it.

"_Have things ever happened to you that seem like they should be part of a science-fiction story?_" the Chris mirage continued as he grabbed a leaf out of the air, just like the real Chris did that day.

"_Chris? I-"_ the other me began softly, her echoing voice sounding slightly frightened. Stepping back slightly, she looked down at the ground and stuttered, "_I…I…__**I want **_**OUT!**"

Gasping in fear, I stared at my counterpart as she lifted her head up, her eyes as blood red as the ones from my demon dream, hair growing wild and untamed as her nails and teeth grew longer and sharper. Chris stumbled away from her with wide eyes, his supplies dropping from his shoulders and onto the ground as she continued to morph. Her skin turned a dark grey, bright red stripes bleeding onto her skin like ink. Her ears became more pointed as they moved up the side of her head, her face distorting into an ugly snarl as she grinned hungrily at the boy in front of her. Lifting up her four inch long claws, she gave a low growl before lunging at Chris with a loud, "_**Graoooo!**_"

"_AAAA!!_" both Chris and I screamed at the same time, me from fear and Chris from pain as her claws dug into his flesh, spilling his blood across the clearing. The attack seemed to last for an eternity, but it was over within seconds.

My legs shook in fear as I stared at the monster in front of me, the beast leaning over Chris's broken and bloodied body. Slowly, like clock-work, she stood up in a kind of slouch, her claws dripping red fluids that stained her hands and clothes. Then, she looked up at me, those red eyes seeming to burn deeply into my very soul.

For the longest time, we just stared at each other, one out of fear and the other out of predatory interest. Then, she smiled as she lifted one of her hands up to her face, a long tongue slithering out and gently sliding over one of those deadly talons. Blood now stained her lips as she grinned those ivory fangs at me. "**Funny thing about humans,**" she hissed thoughtfully as she stared down at Chris's body. "**They're so weak, yet their blood is so…**_**delicious.**_"

"W-Who are you?" I stuttered, my legs paralyzed on the spot.

She seemed to smile even wider now, her eyes growing lighter and lighter…until they were a familiar hazel brown. "**I'm **_**you,**_" she snarled gleefully before she lunged at me.

"_AAAAA!!_" I screeched as I threw my arms up in defense, expecting those claws to come ripping into my flesh and spill my blood over Chris's blood…

They never came.

Carefully peering through my arms, everything had returned to normal. No blood, no broken bodies, and no monster. They were gone. Lowering my arms in confusion, I stared around in disbelief, my breath coming in short gasps.

'_I…it felt so…so _real!' I thought slowly as I stared at my reflection in the shallow river. '_What is going on with me?_'

There was no answer to my question. Instead, the hair on the back of my neck started prickling again, sending goose-bumps up and down my arms. Stiffening, I looked around and stared around at the trees, unsure where the hidden stalker was. It took me a while to notice it, but I could hear a low buzzing noise. At first I thought it was a helicopter flying nearby, but then I realized that it sounded more like…

_Wing beats…_

"Wazzzpinator, Terrorizzzzze!" a familiar voice buzzed, making me look up at the sky and yelp at the sight of a giant wasp shifting into one of the robots I had seen earlier. He hovered in the air and giggled/buzzed excitedly. "Wazzzpinator find fleshy-bot! Megatron will be pleazzzzed and not zzzzlag Wazzzzpinator!"

Not wanting to find out who this Megatron guy was, I bolted away from the buzzing robot and ducked into the trees, the wasp-robot-thing giving chase. As I ran, I ducked and weaved around trees, hoping to either lose him or at least confuse him to a certain extent. Two minutes of this passed and I was starting to wear down, but I noticed that the wasp-guy was starting to wobble in the air. "_Oooooooh_, Wazzzpinator is _dizzzzzy_," he was moaning as he flew in a drunken fashion.

Quickly taking advantage of this, I went back to running in a straight line, panting as my legs screamed at me to stop. But I couldn't. Not now. Not with all these robots trying to capture me. I had to get away. I had to—

"Ack!" I yelped when I felt someone grab my arm and pull me behind a tree. A hand covered my mouth and a strong arm wrapped around me to prevent me from struggling. The wasp-robot flew by, having gotten out of his dizzy-spell, but now he was looking around in confusion. "Where fleshy-bot go?" he asked no one in particular. He hovered there for a moment, still looking around before he buzzed off in a different direction.

"You alrigh' there partnah?" a familiar and much welcome voice whispered in my ear.

Eyes widening, I managed to slip away and whirl around, giving a slight gasp of surprise before I lunged at the person and hugged them tightly. "Jack! I can't believe it's you!" I exclaimed excitedly as I sighed in relief.

Said person chuckled as he wrapped his arms around me and returned the hug. "Th' on' an' only," he said in amusement as I pulled away to smile at him. Then, I frowned and stepped away from him, causing him to tilt his head in confusion. "Wha's wron'? Ain'cha ever seen me befor'?"

"Prove that you're Jack," I said stiffly, tightening my already tired muscles in case I needed to run again.

"Wha?" he uttered in confusion, his eyebrows shooting up into his hair in surprise.

"Prove to me that you aren't another robot like just about everyone else here," I told him, prepared for anything that might happen.

He tilted his head to the side before he pulled at his cheek as far as it would go…and let go. "Ow," he muttered as he rubbed the now red area on his face. "Would'a robot be abl' ta do thi'?" he said as he pointed to the area.

Raising an eyebrow at that, I shook my head slightly and forced myself to relax a little bit. "I guess not," I admitted softly. "But the others…"

"Forgit th' others. Ah know _Ah'm_ Jack," he nodded as he crossed his arms. Then, he reached out with his hand and said, "Come'on, ah foun' a safe place fo' us t' hid'."

Before I could protest, he grabbed my wrist and started pulling me forward. I didn't say anything though and just followed him, wondering what kind of a place this was that he had found and if it was really safe. As we kept walking, I began to notice some familiar landmarks. I tried remembering where I had seen them and where they led to, but that was easier said than done.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and dug my heels into the ground, Jack turning to glare at me in annoyance. "Jack, where are you taking me?"

"Ah tol' ya, we're goin' t' a saf' place," he repeated slowly, Quickstrike peering at me through his red eyes.

His _glowing_ red eyes.

"Why should I trust you?" I asked him, now starting to feel uncomfortable. "If you won't tell me where we're going, I'm not moving from this spot."

For a moment, he didn't say anything. Then, he smirked in a creepy way that unnerved me as he leaned in close. "Come'on sugah-bot," Jack said in a mock-soothing voice as I tried to back away, his grip tightening to a near-crushing hold. "Th' boss-bot woul' jus' _love_ t' meetcha!"

A sudden purple light exploded out from his body, forcing me to shield my eyes from the sheer brightness of it. His hand suddenly started growing, his fingers becoming longer and longer as more suddenly formed until it covered nearly my entire arm. When the light finally died away, I heard Quickstrike hissing, but for some reason it sounded a lot louder.

And a lot more dangerous.

I slowly lowered my arm stare at '_Jack_'…and immediately wished I hadn't.

"_Waugh!!_" I yelled in fright at the sight of the gold-blue robot standing above me, its red eyes glaring down at me while his right arm stared smugly at me.

That's right: his _arm_ was _staring_ at me. It was one _**huge**_ cobra with a mouth so big, it could swallow me whole if it wanted to!...which I hope it didn't want to. I'm not a big fan of dying from being eaten by a snake. Even if it _is_ mechanical.

Dread filled every fiber of my being as I stared fearfully at the new robot, who started to laugh cruelly at me. "Surprise!" he cackled mockingly. "Now yer comin' wit' me!"

Not wanting to go with the maniac, I started tugging on my arm, trying to pull away from him. "Let go of me!" I yelled as I dug my heels into the ground, the robot holding on tightly. "_Let __**go!**_"

More laughter from him grated my ears as he suddenly lifted me clear off the ground, letting go of my arm for a split second as I hovered in the air. Before I started to fall, he grabbed me around the waist and tossed me over his shoulder, leaving me to scrabble around for a decent hand-hold on his back. "Sorr' lil' firecrackah," he said in a fake-apologetic tone, using a nickname that Kaiza gave me the day he saw me chasing Terry with a shoe. "Would if ah could, bu' th' boss-bot'll 'ave mah cranial unit on a plate if'n I let ya go."

"Why are you guys after me?!" I shrieked as he continued down the path, humming a tune under his breath. "Everyone keeps talking about some experiment, but I have no idea what it has to do with _me!_"

"'ah don' know much 'bout it," he paused in his humming long enough to say. "Bu' whatever it is, it'll 'elp the Predacons defeat th' Maxxies, an' yer the key t' doin' it! So jus' sit back 'n let Quickstrike do all th' talkin'."

As he started up his humming again, I was busy clinging to some of his armor plating to keep from sliding around. His gait was lurching and quick, just like a striking scorpion or snake, and I did not want to slip over his shoulder and hit my head on the ground.

Plus, the giant cobra-arm kept looking over at me every minute or so…I don't think that I want him to bite me either.

Two minutes passed as Quickstrike kept walking, the snake-arm finally satisfied that I wasn't going to do anything and leaving me alone. When Quickstrike stepped onto a trail, I noticed that he stepped over a hole in the center of the path…just like the hole from that day Kaiza carried Chris to see the nurse. Which means…

We were heading back to camp…and those giant robots.

'_Slag!_' I thought in fear as I stared at the back of Quickstrike's head, which was shaded by some kind of hood. '_I've gotta get away from him, fast! But how?_'

Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks…

'_Duh,_' I thought slowly as I stared ahead, a frown appearing on my face. Carefully moving one hand over to the other, I tried to make it seem like I was finding a better handhold so he wouldn't become suspicious. Then, I reached up and slowly withdrew what I was after from my belt: the knife. '_Now…to find the right spot,_' I thought as I adjusted the knife so that it was pointed away from my body.

"We're almos' there, lil' firecrackah," Quickstrike said as he turned his head around slightly. It was then that I noticed something: the tubes and wires in his neck. They seemed to be the weakest part of his body, which might explain the hood-like attachment.

Eyes narrowing, I raised the knife up, drawing it back as far as I would dare. '_Only one chance at this,_' I thought nervously, my heart starting to pound against my ribcage. '_I have to make it count!_'

"'ey, Boss-bot!" he called out suddenly as we stepped into now familiar territory. The sounds of fighting were still going on, but it seemed to calm down _slightly_ when Quickstrike called out like that. "'ah got 'er righ' he—_AAA!_"

He didn't get to finish his sentence due to the fact that he now had a large knife jammed into his neck, sparks flying and oil spilling from the cut wires. I managed to land on my feet when he dropped me, but I didn't waste any time before I darted away from a snapping snake hand. "Ya lil'_ brat!!_" Quickstrike yelled out as he tried to pull the dagger out of his neck.

I didn't hear what else he said, but I'm pretty sure that it wasn't really pleasant. That was actually the furthest thing from my mind right now. What _really_ had me worried right now was the fact that I was surrounded by giant robots, with no idea how to tell which ones wanted to help me and which ones wanted to capture me. The only one that I _could_ recognize was that wolf-bird robot, and he was firing more of those wing-missiles at the pterodactyl. But…

What was his name?…Sliverstrike? Boltsilver? Silver…_Silver…_

"Silverbolt!" I called out to him, hoping that it was the right one. To my immense relief, he immediately turned his head towards me. To my utter horror, so did the featherless bird.

"_RAAAC!_" the scaly flyer screeched as it quickly dived down, headed straight for me. I skid to a stop with a yelp, backpedaling as my feet scrambled across the loose gravel. At the last second, I fell over backwards and watched as it zoomed right over me. Not wanting to wait for him to wheel back around, I jumped up and ran towards Silverbolt, who had his hand out to me encouragingly.

I nearly plowed right into him as I grabbed his hand and found myself behind him, clinging to his leg as if it were a lifeline. He didn't seem to mind. In fact, he looked down at me with a reassuring smile and said, "Don't worry; everything's going to be fine now. I'll protect you with my life if I have to." Then, he redirected his attention to the pterodactyl and raised two of those feather-missile/spears up in challenge. "Bring it on, Terrorsaur!" he growled to the bird as it transformed into its bipedal form.

"It'll be my pleasure," Terrorsaur hissed in that screechy tone of his. "Once I'm through with you, I'll take the girl and prove that _I _am worthy of being leader of the Predacons!"

First word that came to my mind: _egotistical._ Second word: _arrogant._ Third word: _cocky_ (no pun intended). Fourth and final word: _slagger!!_ I don't know what his deal is about being the leader, but there was something about him that annoyed me even more than when I knew him as "Tarry."

…of course, I wouldn't really say that aloud. I don't have a death-wish by an angry robot, nor do I ever plan to…

Then, before I even had time to think, Terrorsaur suddenly bolted forward, ramming into Silverbolt's middle and knocking both to the ground. Squeaking in fear, I quickly ducked away and scampered back a few feet. Looking back at them, I held my breath as the two fought against each other, both trying to get the upper hand and pin the other to the ground. Terrorsaur was trying to punch Silverbolt, striking every possible surface he could reach. For a moment, it seemed like he was winning against the silver warrior.

…that is, until Silverbolt revealed his trump card.

Red optics widened in fear as Terrorsaur stared at the wing missiles aimed right at his face. I barely managed to hear him squeak out "_Help…me!_" before—

_**KABOOM!!**_

"_AAAAA-!_" Terrorsaur screeched as I watched him go flying overhead (_not of his own power, anyway_) with a trail of smoke clouding up behind his burning nonexistent tail-feathers. I think I saw him crash into the building where the latrines were, but I couldn't be too sure. Most of the buildings here looked the same anyway.

Looking at Silverbolt again, I noticed that there were dents in his armor, but otherwise he looked fine (_apparently that pterodactyl wasn't very strong if he didn't do that much damage_). When Silverbolt stood up again, he turned his attention to me and seemed to be relieved. "Come, we must move quickly if we are to keep you safe," he told me as he held out his hand.

I didn't even hesitate as I took hold of his hand, which was big enough to envelop mine like a pitcher's mitt, and allowed him to lift me up onto his shoulders. From my new vantage point, I could see just about the entire camp ground and all the robots fighting each other. And out of the corner of my eye, there was a blue and silver robot with his hands together forming a cat head and shooting lasers from the mouth of it. I don't know why, but he just seemed so—

"_For the ROYALTY!!_"

* * *

**There ya go! Sorry for the sudden cut-off, but again, lack of time. Please R & R and feel free to post any ideas for me, as it might help me get future chapters done a lot quicker! =3 (hugs you all) Remember to stay safe! And don't trust a Predacon if he offers to take you to a safe place!**


	8. Animal I Have Become

**...ho...ly...SLAG! It's been two years since I updated this bloody thing? *bashes head against desk* I'M SO SORRY GUYS! D8 Writer's block has been gripping me for so long even after I got back from Basic Training and AIT, I haven't been able to write one slaggin' page in my notebooks! That and the fact that I've been jumping from one fandom to the next has been keeping me away from this, and even when I got back to it I couldn't think of how to end the chapter! *cries on Cheetor's shoulder***

**Cheetor: *pats my back* There, there, it's alright. At least you got this done, so now that you've got it up, you can get down to the real stuff in future chapters!**

**Me: *perks up* Oh yeah! *looks at you* Well, I hope you enjoyed seeing the Beasties in present day Earth, because this is the last chapter you'll be seeing it in for a long time!**

**Cheetor: G'reth the Air Dragon does not own Beast Wars or Transformers. She does, however, own other characters that you don't know.**

**Me: ENJOY! *goes to make Somen noodles***

* * *

"FOR THE ROYALTY!"

"Ah!" Lauren gasped in shock as a ball of fire whizzed past her head, Silverbolt instantly ducking and turning slightly to protect the young human. Turning his head around, he could see Inferno hovering overhead, his flamethrower primed and ready to fire (**A/N: No pun intended**).

Cackling insanely, Inferno glared at the Maximal below him and said, "Hand over the experiment, or you shall face the wrath of the Royalty!"

"Not a chance, Inferno," Silverbolt proclaimed heroically as he placed a protective hand up to the human. "You'll have to pry her from my cold dead servos before I allow her to fall into Predacon hands!"

Lauren nearly blanched at how much he sounded like a knight just then. '_I guess his CPU got a little too much Shakespeare back in school,_' she thought to herself as she focused on the flying bug with the propeller-butt. '_Or whatever these guys have as schools…_'

Inferno's glare seemed to deepen, his voice sounding menacing as he said, "Then you shall _burrrrrrn_ Maximal scum! Ahahahahaha!"

As a torrent of flames rained down on the fuzor and human, Silverbolt leapt back and grabbed the human so she would be safe in his arms before firing off a few missiles from his wings. They managed to strike and cancel out some of the balls of fire, but more seemed to replace them. Seeing that this wasn't helping their situation, Silverbolt turned and ran, shielding the tiny figure in his arms with his body and concealing her with his wings.

Now it was a race against time…and one insane pyromaniac.

"Don't worry, little one," Silverbolt said reassuringly as Lauren clung to his chasis. "I won't let any harm come to you. As is my sworn duty as a Maximal, I will give my life to protect y—AUGH!"

"Eeek!" Lauren squealed as she felt herself flying through the air, having been flung from the warrior's arms after a fireball managed to strike him in the back. She tumbled head-over-heels for a moment, her body curled into a ball as her momentum carried her forward.

_Clang!_

"Whoa!" a voice above her yelped in surprise when she crashed nearly face-first into something hard and metallic. Shaking her head to clear it, Lauren looked up at what she hit…and gasped quietly in surprise.

It was the same blue and silver robot with the cat-shaped hands, which she discovered merely concealed his real hands under two shell halves. His green optics were wide in surprise and horror at the sight of the human there. To Lauren, however, there was something about him that reminded her of someone. The eyes…the freckles…they just seemed to match someone very dear to her. As the image slowly formed in her mind, the cat-bot chanced a glance over his shelter that he had been hiding behind before he turned his emerald optics towards her and asked, "What are you doing here? You should've been somewhere safe by now. Rattrap should've protected you!"

At this, Lauren blinked in confusion. How did he know that Rattrap had been with her? Even the cat-bot seemed to realize what he said and looked away, almost as if ashamed of something. Instead, he said, "You need to get to safety…away from all this."

"Who are you?" Lauren asked quietly, her eyes searching desperately for any clues. "Tell me…_please…_"

For a moment the robot didn't say anything, staring at the ground with his optics hidden in shadow. Then…he turned to her, optics shining with regret, and said, "My name…is Cheetor…or as you once knew…Chris."

/_P.O.V. on: Lauren_/

I felt my eyes widen in shock and disbelief. The very same boy that I knew…had grown close to in the past few weeks…was a _robot?_ How was it possible? How is it that everyone I knew…or _thought_ I knew…was a robot in disguise? I could wrap my arms around them as a human and I couldn't even feel any of the excess metal that these guys had. Their skin was just as soft and squishy as a human's, like the time Alexis pinched Garen's cheek with her nails and left red marks. They could even _eat _like humans! Why didn't they say anything? Why…

Do I feel so…_betrayed?_

"Lauren?" Chri…no…_Cheetor_ asked in concern. "Please understand…we couldn't tell anyone…even if we wanted to."

A wave of sadness and anger washed over me as I glared at him, the look itself causing him to wince away from me. Then, with so much fury, I snarled, "I thought you were my _friend…_I hate you…_I hate you!_"

The last part was screamed out at him before I turned and ran, tears of anguish falling to the ground as I avoided Cheetor's hand. "Lauren, _wait!_" he called out, sounding hurt. But I didn't care…he lied to me…_all of them…_they toyed with my emotions, told me things that weren't true…they weren't my friends…

They were _nothing…_

As I ran, I avoided each and every robot I came across, both those that wanted to capture me and those that wanted to help me. I even hit Rattrap in the optic with a rock the size of my fist, just so he'd let go of me. Still the tears fell, the pain more than anything I had ever felt in the past. The truth stabbed me even more so than _X_'s dagger, the fact that it was all real only adding to the pain. I was so distracted by my thoughts, I didn't even notice the prickling sensation on the back of my neck or the black shadow that appeared over me until it was too late.

"You're mine _now_, human!"

"_AAA!_" I screeched in fear as I felt talons clamp down on me, pinning both my arms to my sides as I suddenly found myself flying through the air. Looking up at the figure above me, I gasped in fear at the sight of the red pterodactyl grinning down at me.

Chuckling in amusement, he asked, "You seriously didn't think you could escape _me_, did you? I always get my prey, and I always triumph!"

Eyes widening, I struggled around and lashed out, kicking the air to try and throw him off balance. "Let me GO!" I screamed at him, even as he tightened his grip on me to make me cease wriggling around. "_HELP!_"

"Hey, _bird-brain!_"

Terrorsaur's head snapped up at the same time I looked up at the voice, both of us seeing a flying robotic _cat_ with _rockets_ at its sides charging towards us. It had the same color scheme as Cheetor, but it had red optics instead of green. Snarling like a feral beast, the cheetah-like cat shouted, "Let go of my _friend!_"

"_RACK!_" Terrorsaur screeched as Cheetor collided with him, his jaws clamping down on one of the wings and tearing some of the flesh out, revealing an array of wires beneath it. The force of the crash, however, sent us tumbling head-over-heels, the talons gone and leaving me free-falling through the air. A squeal of fear escaped when I saw how close the ground was getting, the world spinning at dizzying speeds. "_Lauren!_" Cheetor called out in fear as he dislodged himself from the giant turkey, immediately going into a dive and boosting the power in his rockets to try and reach me.

A flash of a memory appeared in my mind, making me gasp. '_This…this is like the time I fell off the cliff,_' I thought slowly, watching as Cheetor morphed into his bipedal form and reached for my hand. '_Back there…something rescued me from getting killed in the fall…_'

Cheetor's hand grasped my hand and immediately he pulled me to him, holding me tightly in his arms while curling protectively around me. '_The thing that saved me,_' I thought slowly, realization dawning on me as I looked up at his face. '_The one that risked their life for me…_'

"It was _you_…"

_**WHUMP! CRUNCH!**_

/_P.O.V. off_/

"Kid!" Rattrap coughed as the smoke cleared away, having been kicked up by Cheetor's landing in the dust. "Kid, you al'ight?"

Heads turned to gaze at the crash site, where they could see the cat-bot lying still on his side. Silverbolt, one of his wings damaged from one of Inferno's fireballs, rushed over with Rhinox hot on his heels before he knelt and gingerly reached for the seemingly unconscious human. As soon as he touched her, however, she opened her eyes and coughed at some of the offending dust still lingering in the air. She looked up at Silverbolt and Rhinox for a brief moment before she turned her attention to Cheetor and let out a cry of fear. "_Cheetor!_" she cried out, scrambling out of the cat-bot's arms and moving closer to his head. "Cheetor, please, don't go! I'm sorry about what I said, _I don't hate you!_"

At first there was no response. Then, weakly, his emerald green optics lit up, seeming to stare right past her for a moment before he finally focused on her face and smiled. "I-I-It's alr-r-right," he said softly, the bit of static in his voice that wasn't there before scaring the young human. "You s-s-s-said once be-e-e-efore…e-e-even the best of frie-e-ends ha-a-ave fights…but th-th-that makessss them closer-r-r-r."

Lauren reaches over to gently touch his cheek, Cheetor reaching up shakily with his own to envelop hers. "But it shouldn't cause a friend to try and kill himself," she replied quietly, unshed tears welling up in her eyes as she clutched tightly at his hand. "You're the best friend I've ever had…I don't want to lose you."

"I'm n-n-not going anywhe-re-re-re," Cheetor chuckled weakly before he sighed. "I just…need t-t-t-to…rest…"

Everything seemed to go still as the only sound that Lauren heard was the sound of mechanisms shutting down and his optics dimming to darkness, his hand going lax and falling to the ground. The world seemed to disappear around the girl as she stared at the still form in front of her. Silverbolt and Rhinox vanished, the smoke and stench of burning metal and wood dissipating. The earth and the sky faded to blackness, leaving only her and her friend.

'_He's…gone,_' she thought numbly, disbelief and despair weighing heavily on her heart. '_He's gone…no…no, he can't go! He can't leave me!_'

"_CHEETOR!_" she screamed as she collapsed against his chest, clinging as tightly to him as she could. Silverbolt and Rhinox watched the distraught girl, unsure whether or not to move any closer to try and consol her. They didn't have long to debate, however, as another problem appeared for them.

"Well now, that's one less Maximal pest we'll have to deal with," a familiar voice hissed in amusement, causing the two warriors to take defensive positions around the girl and her fallen friend. Megatron grinned as he stared at the human, who was still weeping over her friend's body, and said, "Now we won't have much trouble getting the human to cooperate with us now that her _precious_ little companion is gone."

"Leave her out of this, Megatron!" Rhinox snarled as he pointed his machine-guns at the purple tyrant. "She doesn't deserve to be forced into the slavery of the Predacons!"

Still grinning, Megatron shook his head and said, "As if it would matter. You Maximals would do the same thing at best. At worst—you would _destroy her._ You Maximals will always destroy things that are a threat to peace, and that human is a _threat!_ Let's face it: she's better off in Predacon hands."

"The Maximals would _never_ claim the life of an innocent child!" Silverbolt snapped angrily, his fur nearly bristling as the feathers on his wings trembled in barely contained rage at the accusation. "It's not her fault what happened to her! She didn't _ask_ for any of this!"

"Well now, it's not _her_ decision, is it?" Megatron countered. "What's done is _done_. And she belongs to the Predacons!"

"No."

All at once, the three stopped their argument and turned to stare at the speaker. Lauren was still as death, her cries no more as her hair shadowed her eyes. "What was that?" Megatron asked, his patience starting to wear thin.

"I said, '_no_'," Lauren repeated tonelessly. "I don't belong to anyone…especially not a no good slagger like _you_."

Face nearly turning red in anger, Megatron snapped, "You'll pay for that little insult, youngling. Now come here or _else!_"

"_Shut up!_" she screeched with such force, it startled both Maximal and Predacon into silence. Then, in a much quieter voice, anger building with each word, she said, "You'll pay for everything you've done…all the lives you've threatened…the lives you've _taken…_you'll pay…_you'll pay!_"

Dust began to pick up, swirling around the girl and Cheetor as it slowly started to conceal them. A heavy feeling of malice filled the air, sending shivers down the spines of those present as a dark chill seeped into their sparks. They could hardly see the human standing up rather shakily, but each of them could sense that something was wrong. Something almost…_sinister…_

_**CH-WOOSH!**_

All of a sudden, violet black energy exploded outwards, spiraling into the air like a tornado as the wind kicked up sand and dirt. Backing away from the dark energy, both Maximal and Predacon watched as the human slowly turned her head towards them…and stared in horror. Instead of the kind hazel eyes they had known, piercing red eyes with orange flecks glared at them, unnaturally sharp canines bared in an ugly snarl as the girl's short nails became sharp, deadly talons and her hair becoming more wild and untamed. All the cuts on her arms and face that had been the results of landing on the rocks began to close, faint wisps of smoke rising from the healing wounds. The energy suddenly grew wild, drawing attention to the top of the whirlwind as a form began to take shape, blazing white orbs leering down at the Transformers below. The head…

Of a _black tiger._

Snarling menacingly at the tiny forms, the flame-like body of the red-striped tiger rose higher into the air before diving and disappearing inside the girl's body with a silent roar. Only the residue of demonic energy remained, swirling around the human like ashes of a burning forest. No longer was this the caring child they had come to know. All that remained…

…was a _monster…_

Then, in a gravelly voice half-man and half-beast-like that sent a cold stab of fear through their chests, Lauren snarled, "_**I'll kill you!**_"

_**GAOOOOOOOOO-!**_

The roar was near deafening as the combatants covered their audio receptors, their eyes wide in shock and disbelief as the aura of malice grew. Narrowing his eyes, Megatron turned to his warriors and shouted, "Fire at the girl! Do whatever you can to put her in stasis lock!"

Those that were still on their feet seemed hesitant, but the followed his orders and fired their weapons at the demonic figure. Poison darts, fireballs, plasma shots, even missiles were fired at her, the Maximals moving to try and shoot them out of the air before they could strike. The demonic girl leered at the shots that managed to slip through, crossing her arms in front of her chest as she braced herself against the ground. Even those that were far away from her could feel the energy building up, but no one could fathom what would happen next.

_**Graooooo-!**_

With another loud roar, the demon slashed her arms outwards, a wave of pure energy and air exploding outwards! Fireballs were snuffed out of existence, plasma shots disintegrated, and the projectiles were knocked off course, leaving the figure untouched. Megatron gazed at the display of power like a starving wolf, a wicked grin forming on his face as he hissed, "_Yessss._ Such _power!_ With that kind of strength, one could easily take over Cybertron! It is truly a sign of fate that the Predacons shall rule the _universe!_"

"Not on my watch, Megatron!" a voice cut in, drawing the tyrant's attention to the skies.

"Optimus Primal!" Megatron snarled venomously, his tail cannon charging up as he raised it to fire at the oncoming surfer.

_**Gaooo!**_

"Hrn!" the Predacon leader grunted in shock as the demonic human appeared in front of him, seeming to come out of thin air as she drew her fist back and swung with enough force to make the wind whistle around it. With a resounding '_crunch!_', the purple behemoth was sent flying back, craters forming with each contact his body made with the hard earth. The force of the punch was strong enough to send him through a cabin and continue until he was a good thirty-five feet from his previous position.

Landing with the grace of a tiger, the demon figure growled at the still form, claws digging into the dirt as her eyes narrowed in pure rage. Then, turning her eyes up to the sky, she hissed at Optimus, who was hovering nearby with a look of shock on his face. "What's happened to you?" he whispered sadly as the demon girl leered up at him. With a loud screech that made everyone cringe, the demon lunged for him with the intent to kill…until he pulled something out of subspace.

Eyes widening, the demon landed on his board and stared at the flower that he held, the familiar lily-shaped pink head bobbing gently in the breeze that kicked up. It was the same flower that Scoutmaster Jason had on his desk before all this happened. Looking up at him again, the demonic coloring and shape remained the same, but her eyes now took on a human expression of disbelief as he stared back. "I know you're still in there, Lauren," he said gently, even as she started backing up a bit. "I know you don't trust us for not telling you the truth, but believe me, we would have wanted nothing more than to tell you what we were if we knew that you'd still be the same girl we care about. Don't let this monster inside you take control. You have to fight it…come back to us."

Meanwhile, Megatron was struggling to push himself up, still dazed by the sudden punch that nearly sent him into stasis lock. He spotted the human as she slowly stood up, hesitantly reaching for the hand Optimus was offering her. "Not this time, Primal," he sneered as he aimed his tail-cannon once more, the plasma giving a low hum as it gathered power.

Spotting him out of the corner of his eye, Rhinox gasped as he reached towards the two and shouted, "Optimus, look out!"

His warning came too late as the shot went off, heading straight for the Maximal leader's head. In a flash, a blur of speed got between him and the blast and screeched as it struck with full force. "_No!_" Optimus howled as he reached for the falling girl, her back smoking near her shoulder-blades where the blast had hit. Even from a distance they could see that the skin was burned to a black crisp, flesh blistering with the intense heat as the blood fizzled like molten magma. Swinging his board around, Optimus dove under the falling figure and caught her gently, carrying her to Rhinox as the technician hurried over.

"Predacons! Retreat!" Megatron shouted as Inferno and Scorponok helped him up, their bodies starting to blur before they vanished. One by one the other Predacons followed, leaving only the Maximals and the remaining human.

Hovering for a moment longer to make sure that they were gone, Optimus landed and changed into his normal bipedal form, heading over to Rhinox as he worked to try and clean the wound. "How bad is it?" he asked in concern, worried that they would lose her before they could save her.

"It doesn't look good," came the response as Rhinox set aside another bloody towel. "Any normal human would have died instantly with that kind of heat striking them, but whatever that creature was inside her must've used some of its power to protect her for the most part. Even the rapid healing that she's shown seems to be having a difficult time closing it up."

"Isn' there anythin' we can do for da kid?" Rattrap spoke up, one optic dim from the hit he had gotten from a rock. "I mean, she can' just die on us _now!_"

Sighing, Rhinox finished cleaning the wound and bound it up with bandages, making sure that any cloth not already burned into the flesh was out of the way before carefully picking her up. "There's nothing more that we can do for her, Rattrap," he said grimly. "All we can do is wait…and hope for the best."

No one said anything else as they prepared to warp. The girl that they'd all become attached to had cheated death twice before…but now it appeared that her luck has run out…

* * *

**Me: Augh! Cliffie! XD You guys must be getting tired of these things...BUT NOW YOU KNOW THAT WE'RE JUST GETTING STARTED WITH THE REAL STUFF! *evil cackle***

**Megatron: You really should leave the cackling to the professionals. It doesn't sound right coming from a human that looks like she's 15 years old.**

**Me: I'M 20 YEARS OLD! D8( *growls at him* I'll be 21 in March...ANYWHO! Please Read and Review with questions, comments, concerns, and the general shebang of ideas that you might want to see in the future chapters! Like, would you like to see Tarantulas get mauled by a mutant bunny? *gets hit with a shoe* Owwie...anyway, reviews would be nice with ideas as it helps me get these things out faster! =3 So don't hesitate to put anything silly if that's what you want to see as well! FLAMES WILL BE TORCHED BY INFERNO AND USED TO MAKE RAMEN AND SOMEN NOODLES! *grabs chopsticks***


	9. Mending the Heart

**Hey guys! Sorry for the delay, but writer's block and college have been getting to me, and the fact that my muses have been pulling me in all sorts of different directions. ^_^;**

**Anyway, thank you guys so much for being patient with me and for sticking by me for so long! (even rereading the whole thing after getting a much-delayed update XD)**

**And even though it's been up for a while, there's a poll on my profile about this story, where you can pick what sort of stuff you'd like to see more of in future chapters (example: fluff, mystery, etc.). If you feel like voting, feel free to pop on by and see what appeals to you all~! :D**

**Okay, now that that's out of the way, here's the next chapter~! X3**

* * *

"_Mama! Unkkie is hewe!"_

_The little three year old giggled as she ran for the front door, abandoning her post at the window when she saw her uncle walking up the path with a familiar playmate holding his hand. Her indigo tipped bangs bounced with each skip as she hopped up and grabbed the elegant lever-shaped handle, the door swinging open with her still clinging to it before she dropped and tackled the large figure that stepped in. "Unkkie!" she cheered as the older male gave a hearty laugh._

"_Well, if it isn't my favorite niece!" her uncle chuckled as his five-year old son hid somewhat behind his leg in surprise, not having expected her to greet them like that. "Where's your mom at?"_

"_Mama is in da ki'chen," she told him as she pointed in the direction of the wonderful smells. "She's bakin' a cake fow mah birffday tomowwow!"_

"_Is she now? And how old are you gonna be?"_

"Fowh!_"_

_Her uncle gave another laugh, gently ruffling her hair affectionately before he looked at the boy with messy brown hair. "Spike, why don't you go play in the yard with your cousin? I gotta go talk to her mom for a bit."_

"_Okay, papa," Spike agreed before he took the little girl's hand. "Come on! Let's go play with Jazz and Bumblebee!"_

"_Okkie-day, Spike!" the little girl cheered as she followed after him, both of them giggling loudly as they ran over to a white Porsche with a number on the hood and a yellow Volkswagen. As the two got closer, the headlights seemed to flash them a greeting as the trunk of the yellow bug popped open for them. All sorts of toys and goodies greeted the delighted children, promising fun times for the two._

_However, while Spike grabbed a few cars and other toys, his cousin grabbed a strange looking device that was box-shaped, several knobs decorating one side as she skipped to the sandbox with her prize._

_Inside, her uncle stood next to a woman with brown-blond hair, both of them watching the two play with their respective toys. "It's strange," he muttered softly. "Out of all the toys in there, she grabs the box."_

"_Are you sure that it's safe for her to play with that thing?" the woman asked in concern. "I've heard that the one that makes those things has a tendency to blow everything up."_

"_Don't worry, everyone made sure that that thing would be safe," he reassured her as he watched the little girl in question tinker with the box. "But everyone has noticed that she's different from the other children."_

_The older woman said nothing for a moment. Then, she went over to a desk and pulled out a stack of papers from one of the drawers before handing them to him. "These are the things that she's been drawing," she explained as he looked at the strange images on the white pieces of paper. "I don't know what they mean, but they're definitely not pictures of her family or animals."_

_On the pieces of paper, oddly shaped symbols decorated the pages, almost like they were some sort of language that she had made up. "I…think I've seen some of these before," he muttered softly, inspecting some of the crayon-drawn markings._

_A sudden squeal outside, however, stopped their conversation dead in its tracks as they stared at the children in fear, only to get a shock._

_From the box, the little girl had somehow managed to manipulate it so that a holographic image of a cheetah running through the savannah was projected above their heads. Spike and his cousin were laughing and cheering as they reached up in an attempt to pet the running cat._

_Staring at the kids, her uncle slowly looked back at the drawings in his hands, this time a little more serious. "Maybe…I should take these and show them to the guys," he said slowly, shaking his head as he tried to process what his three year old niece had done._

"_They're not going to take her away from us, are they?" the mother panicked, her eyes wide as she looked ready to sprint and grab her daughter from harm._

"_No," he reassured her gently as he looked back at the kids, who were now playing tag around the cars. "The big guy wouldn't do that to a sweet little thing like her. Most likely he'd want one of the others watch over her if something goes wrong. Don't worry…I'll make sure that she stays in this family."_

_Hesitating for a moment, the mother finally nodded and watched as the kids hugged the noses of the cars. "I hope you're right…Sparkplug…"_

/_Prehistoric Earth: The _Ark/

_Hissssss…_

Bright green optics flashed open blearily as a soft groan escaped, the figure rubbing his head from the aching processor he was getting as he stepped out of the CR Chamber. Looking around, he took note of his surroundings and tried to process what was going on. '_I'm…back at the _Ark,' he thought as he recognized the tables and the consoles. '_But…where's Lauren?_'

"Good ta see ya up an' abou', Spots."

Cheetor turned his attention to the speaker and found Rattrap reclining back in one of the chairs, playing a game of holographic cards with the computer. "You were out for nearly a solar-cycle," Rattrap continued without turning around. "Course, ya did take _quite_ a bit of damage from dat fall…"

"Where's Lauren?" Cheetor asked. Then, starting to panic, he asked, "Is she safe? Did the Predacons get her?"

"Nah, da Preds left with their tails between their legs," Rattrap snorted. "Dey didn' get 'er…but, ah…"

Hearing the hesitation in the rat's voice did nothing for the cat as he lunged forward and spun him around, grabbing his shoulders and snapping, "What? What's is it? What's wrong? What happened to her!"

Rattrap lightly shoved him off as he looked at him, his optics dim as he said, "Maybe…it's best if ya see fer yaself. But you're not gonna like it…"

Dreading the sight he might see, Cheetor followed Rattrap almost mechanically through the hallways, passing by Silverbolt and Dinobot. Silverbolt had a somber face as he tried to reassure the younger mech, while Dinobot…neither he nor Rattrap seemed to be in the mood for their usual banter, choosing only silent nods in greeting. Finally, they reached the part of the _Ark_ that the Maximals had rearranged specifically for humans, the one place that Cheetor hoped that they'd never have to use.

The Medical Wing.

'_No,_' Cheetor thought in fear, time seeming to slow to a crawl as he followed Rattrap through the doors. Inside the room, he could see Rhinox hunched over a table with a prone figure lying on a pile of furs and blankets. '_No, she can't be…_'

As if sensing them, Rhinox turned around and his expression was hard to read. Cheetor wanted to ask him if she was okay, that she was going to pull through, but his voice wouldn't allow him to voice his concerns. Rattrap, however, spoke up for him and asked, "How is she?"

"It's…hard to say for certain," Rhinox admitted as he looked at the unconscious human lying on her side, bandages nearly covering her entire torso to cover whatever injury she had gotten. "She took a plasma shot in the back, and there's no telling what kind of nerve damage she could have in her spine. For all we know…she could become paralyzed for the rest of her life. She might never be able to walk or run again…"

Cheetor felt his spark freeze up. Lauren…his friend…could be paralyzed? The mere thought that the energetic girl he had come to know might never be the same…was almost too much for him to bear. "Is…is there anything…you can do?" he hesitantly asked, afraid of the answer.

"I've done all I can," Rhinox sighed sadly. "Believe me, if there were a way for me to repair the damage any faster, I'd do it. But she's only a human…not a Cybertronian…"

"So, ah…what _can_ we do?" Rattrap asked uncertainly.

"The only thing we _can_ do," came the response. "Wait…and hope for the best."

For a long time no one said anything, watching the labored breathing of the girl. Then, in a quiet voice, Cheetor asked, "Can I stay with her? In case she wakes up?"

"So long as you don't try to move her, I don't see why not," Rhinox nodded. When he passed by him, he added, "Just be careful. There's no telling how she'll react once she wakes up. And I don't mean from the pain…"

A silent nod was the only response as Cheetor pulled a crate over to the berth, reaching over and carefully brushing away the hair that got in her face. Taking that as their cue, the remaining occupants quietly left the younger warrior to his silent vigil over his friend.

The air was thick with silence as Cheetor spent hours in the room. He barely acknowledged the presence of the others when they came to check on her. Even Depth Charge came in and watched in silence, only nodding in greeting.

Soon night came and she still showed no signs of waking up. Cheetor watched her chest rise and fall, each ragged breath slowly breaking his spark. Reaching out for her hand, he gently held it in his metallic ones and leaned in close. "Lauren?" he whispered uncertainly. "It's me…Cheetor. I-I know things haven't been all that they should have been. I wish I could have told you everything, I really do. My human form might have been a lie…but our friendship wasn't. When I first met you on that plane, I wanted to know more about you. And the few weeks we spent together? Those were the best days of my life! I…wanted to tell you the truth that day you were pushed off that cliff…but I was afraid.

"I was afraid," he continued after a pause. "Afraid that if you knew the truth, I'd lose you. Now…now you're hurt, and it's all my fault. Please, if you can hear me…come back. Come back to me…and I promise I'll tell you everything."

He didn't know if she could hear him, but he had heard stories about humans coming out of stasis just by having someone talk to them. And if those stories were true, then why wouldn't it work for Lauren, too?

As another hour passed by, he kept talking to her, telling her about the Beast Wars, his teammates, and even Cybertron. The figure standing outside the door listened as the young warrior spoke of a theme park on Cybertron called '_Six Lasers_', and how she'd love it if she could see it. Silently, Optimus left the room to give them time. Glancing at the small item in his hand, he figured he'd let Rhinox put it in the room when he went to change the girl's bandages.

He sent a silent prayer to Primus for her full recovery.

/_P.O.V. on: Lauren_/

'…_oh…my back…why does it hurt so much?_'

My back gave a painful twinge as I shifted again, clenching my teeth against the pain as I slowly opened my eyes. Gray walls filled my line-of-vision, followed by a red-orange blur and a mass of blue and silver metal. Blinking away the fuzziness, I was able to make out what the two blurs were. The red-orange blob was actually a weird sort of lily curving downwards on the stem, the petals curling up towards the bud of the flower. I was surprised to see that there were brown spots on the flower petals shaped like leopard or cheetah spots!

As soon as I took a look at the blue and silver blur, however, I was shocked. '_Cheetor!_' I thought in disbelief. '_He…he's okay!_'

Said robot was currently sitting with his head on his arms, his optics dimmed as he rested. '_But…I saw him…I thought he died!_' I thought in disbelief as I hesitantly reached out, fearing that he'd disappear if I touched him.

But my fingers brushed against smooth metal, the surface of his cheek warm to the touch. My shoulders sank as I sighed in relief, simply elated that he was truly here with me. "So I'm not dreaming then," I uttered quietly to myself as I looked down at my lap, memories drifting to the surface once more. "It's all real…"

"It is…and I wish it wasn't."

Gasping in surprise, I looked back at Cheetor to see him gazing up at me with emerald optics, a deep remorse shining within. "I was afraid that this would happen," he continued as he sat up, which kept us eye-level with one another. "This…this shouldn't have happened to you…to anyone. You were never supposed to get hurt because of our war…"

"Then why did it happen?" I asked him. "Why did you pretend to be human if whatever this '_experiment_' you've all been looking for was going to bring a fight to innocent bystanders?"

He looked away at the accusing tone, unable to look me in the eye. "We knew the risks involved…the lives at stake…but we had to, or the Predacons would have hurt the other humans just to find you."

"But _what_ makes _me_ so slaggin' important?" I ground out, tired of being kept in the dark. "What makes me different compared to all the other boys and girls that were in that camp?"

"That…I really don't know," he responded. "I was never told the full details about it. All I know is that twelve stellar-cycles ago, you were part of some test…created by the _Decepticons_."

A sudden chill seemed to fill the room. I had heard countless stories from my uncle about the cruelty of the Decepticons and how much they hated humans. My mom always freaked out whenever the subject of Autobots and Decepticons came up, even in the news…so she always tried to avoid the news and did everything she could to keep me '_safe_' as she had told me once. But my uncle said that I needed to know, lest I come into contact with them.

So now the idea of humans becoming test subjects wasn't such a new concept to me in terms of the Decepticons, but…something didn't feel quite right about this. If I'm part of some Decepticon experiment…then how did I get away from them?

My thoughts were interrupted by a light touch, Cheetor's eyes looking at me with what appeared to be sorrow and regret as he said, "Look, I…I know you have no reason to trust us after all that's happened…but believe me when I say this: you are the best friend anyone could ask for, human or bot. I'll understand if you hate me and never want to talk to me again…I only regret that I couldn't tell you the truth sooner…"

I stared at him for a long time, the anger and frustration that I had felt earlier seeming to simmer down. Though his eyes were now optics…they still held the same glow of kindness to them from when he was disguised as a human.

"…I couldn't hate you even if I tried," I finally uttered quietly, giving a small smile at the shocked look on his face. "Even with this secret I still know you pretty well…and I know that you wouldn't do anything that would intentionally hurt someone. It'll take a while to get used to it…but if you promise not to hide anything from me anymore…then I'll forgive you."

Now it was his turn to stare as he looked at me, his jaw slack with shock as his optics flashed in a blink. Then, a wide grin slowly spread across his face before he reached out and pulled me into a hug. "_Owowowow!_" I yelped in pain, my back burning when his arm pressed too hard against it. "Watch the back! Watch the back!"

"Oh! Sorry!" he apologized quickly as he released me, allowing me to breathe as I waited for the pain to go away. He gave a sheepish grin when I turned and gave him a playful glare, only for the both of us to burst into a fit of laughter.

A few minutes later we calmed down, simply sitting there and enjoying each other's company without speaking. Then, curiosity got me as I asked, "So…what happens now?"

"I think I can answer that," a voice spoke up from the doorway.

We turned our heads to look at the new visitor, Cheetor standing up quickly as he said, "Rhinox. Optimus. I…"

The larger of the two, who wore blue, silver and gold armor, raised his hand up to silence him before he turned to me. "It's good to see you awake, Lauren," he said, his voice immediately reminding me of Scoutmaster Jason. "How are you feeling?"

Suddenly feeling a little nervous, I turned my attention to my body and stretched a few limbs experimentally. "Sore…but I'll manage," I told him.

"Just don't overexert yourself," the green and brown robot, who suspiciously reminded me of the nurse, spoke up firmly. "Your body still hasn't fully healed, and moving around too much might open them up again."

"I know that this is a lot for you to take in," Optimus said after I nodded to the one I assumed was Rhinox—since he looked like a rhino. "But we'll do our best to make sure that you remain safe from the Predacons until we are absolutely sure that they cannot get their hands on you. In the meantime…we'll tell you everything we know."

* * *

**Sorry for the short chapter. Best I could grind out at the time. ^_^;**

**Okay, just so you guys know, that first part in the beginning was supposed to be a little flashback thing. Even though it didn't specify a name for the little girl, I don't think I really need to point out who it really is, do I? :I**

**Anyway, now it seems like everything's settled down once again and we'll find out more about this "experiment" that everyone keeps going on about...or will we?**

**Stay tuned to find out! Don't forget to leave a nice little review-with ideas if they appear-if you don't mind~! :3 *throws a bunch of Transformer plushies at everyone and flees***


	10. Healing the Body

**Hey guys! Sorry it took me so long, but I had lost interest in this for a while due to Mass Effect plot bunnies nibbling like crazy at me. But today I reread what I had written of this chapter and saw where I had gotten stuck at. So, I started trying to write it again. This time, I had a lot more success, and this here is the result! :D**

**Even though this chapter might be short, I've got the next one planned out on paper and ready to write. Oh, and don't think I've completely forgotten the Predacons yet. One or two shall make their appearance in the next chapter. B3**

**Anyway, I don't own anything but the plot and any characters you don't know. If anyone is acting a little out of character...then I apologise, as I have not watched/heard that character in a while, and I may be rusty. ^^;**

**P.S.- Oh, and as for those of you that have been asking about the timeline thing because of the flashback from the previous chapter, it doesn't exactly follow through with the cannon timeline. I've seen several people mention that the Beast Wars happened 300 years after the Great War was completed, and to me, that's not really enough time for them to really change all that much. So, they'd be set a little further along, but as of right now I don't know how far it'd be.**

* * *

The room was silent as Cheetor and I waited for Optimus to begin his explanation. Rhinox, in the meantime, insisted on changing my bandages with fresh ones. For a moment I blinked in confusion as he started clipping them away. "What happened to my back?" I asked, earning looks of disbelief from everyone.

"You mean…you don't remember what happened at all?" Optimus asked uncertainly.

"No," I frowned. "The last thing I remember is Cheetor going off-line…but the rest is blank."

Rhinox hummed thoughtfully at that. "This is a rather interesting development," he uttered to himself. "But perhaps it'd be best we discuss that at a later time. You were injured rather badly, and we don't want you to start panicking and making it worse."

Even though I wanted to press him for the answer, I probably would panic like he said. While Rhinox continued to tie on the bandages, Optimus coughed to signal that he was ready. "The only thing I ask is that you be patient and hear everything we have to say," he said. "Some of it might be a little…_far-fetched_...but it's all true."

I nodded in understanding. He seemed to consider his words for a moment before he began. "In the time of the Great War, the Autobots fought against the Decepticons to save our home world Cybertron and protect the planet Earth. The Decepticons have tried using many different tactics, including some that involved humans, allies of the Autobots, to try and win the millennia-long war. And while not all Decepticons are as well-known as Megatron, one was rumored to be even more dangerous than the tyrant himself: _Blackwing._"

"Who's Blackwing?" Cheetor asked curiously.

"There are no records of her past life on Cybertron," Optimus explained. "However, she had been a problem for both factions, attacking everyone with a primal fury unlike any other, using unnatural powers that seemed to have been given to her by Unicron himself. With the Matrix, the current Prime, Sentinel, managed to pacify her and locked her body away in a stasis pod far beneath Cybertron. Years later, Megatron rediscovered her and plotted a way to use her against the Autobots. But because she was an unpredictable '_wild-card_', he had to find a way to either force her under his control or make that power his own. He chose the latter.

"Blackwing, however, had her own plans. When they had damaged her body to get to her spark, she released it into the room, searching for a new host to claim. She found it…within a captive human."

"A sparkling to be exact," Rhinox added. "The Decepticons were originally going to use it to try and create a hybrid between organic and Cybertronian technology. When Blackwing merged with the little one, she protected the infant from Megatron's attempts to harm them. In the end, he decided to have the little one raised as a Decepticon, in the hopes that it'd become the ultimate weapon. That sparkling was _you._"

I could only stare in disbelief while Cheetor shook his head. "But that can't be right," he protested. "If she was raised by the Decepticons, how come she's got human parents? She _clearly _doesn't act like a con!"

"No one knows for sure what happened," Optimus said regretfully. "Reports had claimed that an explosion in a lab destroyed not only part of the base, but killed the human. New evidence, however, was revealed that _proved_ that she was still alive. A few months ago, a trans-warp explosion swept us into what you know as the present time. Megatron saw it as an opportunity to find you where others have failed."

Something didn't seem right for a moment. "But wait…if you're fighting against them, why were you working together?" I asked him in confusion.

"We had no choice but to work with them," he answered. "Since the Autobots and Decepticons were still around at the time, it would have been risky if we fought one another and revealed our presence. Unfortunately, that stunt he pulled in trying to capture you mostly likely attracted the attention of _both_ factions. And if they weren't already there…news reporters might have discovered what took place there."

My stomach dropped when a sudden realization struck me. If there were news reporters and cops there, they'd try to get a count of all the campers that were there…and I wouldn't be among them.

As if he knew what was going through my mind, Rhinox placed a large hand on my shoulder and said, "Don't worry. We'll do everything in our power to make sure that you get back home again safe and sound."

"But for now, you need rest," Optimus said as he stood up. "If you need anything, don't be afraid to ask someone."

I gave a small nod as I carefully lowered myself back down on the berth, sighing in relief as the pain eased itself a little. "I'll be back to change your bandages again in a mega-cycle or two," Rhinox informed me as he and Optimus started to leave. "Come on, Cheetor."

"But-"

"She'll be fine," Rhinox reassured him. "Her vitals are hooked up to Sentinel, and someone will be nearby should she need anything."

He looked at me for a moment longer before he reluctantly followed after them, the door closing with a quiet hiss. Left in relative silence, I laid there for a little while. My thoughts, however, drifted back to my family. How long had I been out? Have they told my parents about my disappearance? What about my cousin? I was supposed to spend a few weeks with him and my uncle when summer camp was over…

'_Optimus promised they'd help me get home again,_' I thought as a stray tear fell. '_But how long will it be until that happens?_'

I didn't have an answer as I laid there, reminiscing on times gone by and the fun memories I had with my uncle and cousin. As I started drifting off again, I couldn't help but remember that there had been others there. Shadowy forms and vague shapes were all I could make out, but I remember the cool blue eyes that glowed on their faces. '_If only I could…remember,_' I thought tiredly. '_Why…can't I…remember?_'

Sleep claimed me and I knew no more.

/_Control Room_/

"Is she alright?" Silverbolt asked as soon as Optimus walked in with Rhinox and Cheetor.

"She's fine," Rhinox announced, almost smiling at the relieved looks on their faces. "Just a little shocked. All she needs is time and rest."

Rattrap frowned a little, remembering what he had been told earlier. "So…is she gonna be able t' walk again?" he hesitantly asked. He couldn't imagine what it would be like to not walk for the rest of your life.

There was a smile as the rhino said, "Miraculously, none of her nerves were damaged and her spinal cord is intact. If she takes it easy, she should be up and about within a few weeks…of course, this is if my calculations on her enhanced healing are correct. On another human, recovery could take months or even years…or not even at all."

"_Yeesh!_" the transmetal rat shuddered as he frowned. "Poor kid. I can't even imagin' what she's goin' through, let alone how she feels."

"Only time will tell," Optimus told them. "At the moment, all she needs is rest. Once she's fully healed, then we can determine what needs to be done. Right now we need to keep an eye on the Predacons. Silverbolt? I want you and Rattrap to investigate the border between Maximal and Predacon territory. See if you can find anything unusual happening over on their side."

"Of course," Silverbolt nodded. "We must do everything we can to ensure our young friend's safety, and the Predacons-"

"'ey, enough chit-chat, we got work t' do," Rattrap interrupted before the winged wolf could have a chance to go into a mini-monologue. As much as he hated going on patrols, he could squash down long enough to make sure everything would be okay. The kid had grown on him…despite the times she scared the slag outta him by sneaking up on him.

Silverbolt's ears flattened down a little at that, but he nodded nonetheless and shifted into his beast mode. The hull of the ship opened as he flapped his wings, taking off into the skies as Rattrap hurried to the elevator. A minute later, they heard the rev of an engine before it slowly disappeared into the distance. Nodding, Optimus turned to the others and said, "The rest of you return to your duties. We have a long road ahead of us now."

As the rest scattered to their respective stations, Optimus knew that the stakes had grown much higher now that they had the young human with them. If Megatron somehow managed to capture and control the demon within her…then the future of humanity-and the Autobots/Maximals-would become very bleak.

/_Dream_/

"_Think fast!"_

Shomp!

"_Great catch!" Sparkplug called out as Lauren held her gloved hand up, revealing the ball that she had caught. "You're a natural at this, kiddo!"_

_The eight year old giggled as she grabbed the ball and turned to her nine-year-old cousin. "Spike's turn!" she chirped excitedly._

_Hearing this, Spike crouched down and smirked at her. "Bring it on!" he dared her, beating his fist into the center of the glove before holding both hands out._

_Accepting the challenge, Lauren stood up straight, her tongue sticking out to the side. Leaning back on one leg, she spun the arm that held the ball around in a circle before quickly swinging it around with as much force as she could muster._

Shoomp!

"_I caught it!" he cheered as he held his glove up triumphantly._

"_Yay!" his cousin cheered excitedly as she bounced up and down, eager to continue playing the game._

"_Okay, kids, time to head home," Sparkplug announced as he glanced at his watch. "It's getting late, and your mom wants you home tomorrow, Lauren."_

"_Aww!" both kids moaned as they slouched in disappointment._

_The older man shook his head in amusement as he herded the two over to the vehicle, making sure that they had all their stuff. "Uncle Sparkplug?" Lauren started as she looked up at him. "Can we do this again next summer?"_

_He smiled at her and lightly ruffled the dark blond mop of hair on her head. "Sure thing, kiddo," he told her. "And next time we'll go star-gazin' together._

_She couldn't help but beam at that as she climbed into the back of the yellow Volkswagen with her cousin. "I can't wait for summer to come again!" she grinned as she bounced excitedly in her seat._

"_Me neither!" Spike replied just as excitedly. Then, he turned to her and held out his hand, his pinky finger extended while the other digits curled into a loose fist. "Let's make a promise to meet here every summer, so we can play ball together!"_

"_And see the stars!" she agreed, reaching up with her own pinky and crossing them together. With a hard shake, they sealed the deal and grinned at each other._

/_A few days later_/

"Okay…I spy with my little eye something…green."

Cheetor smiled as he looked around the room, scanning for any objects that even remotely had any green. "Hm," he hummed a little thoughtfully, thinking over his choices carefully. "Is it that leopard flower's stem?"

"No," I shook my head in amusement, looking at the flower that I had seen when I first woke up here in the medical bay. "Try again."

He went back to looking, searching intently for anything that he might have missed. "Is it bright and shiny?" he asked.

"Yes," I nodded.

"Is it one of those buttons on Rhinox's computer?"

"No. Try again."

A small hum escaped him as he searched once more, frowning when he didn't see anything other than those buttons that was green, bright, and shiny. Finally, he huffed and sat back in his seat. "Alright, I give up. What is it?" he asked, knowing he had been beaten.

Smiling at him, I pointed to his face and said, "Your optics, silly."

The look on his face was almost priceless as he shuttered his optics at her in a blink. As soon as it hit him though, he started laughing, which triggered a laugh from the human too. "How could I have forgotten about that?" he chuckled in amusement, smacking his forehead with the palm of his hand as if to say '_doy!_'

"Your turn!" I chirped at him. It had been rather boring the last few days, so this game was a good distraction from boredom…provided we didn't run out of stuff to spy.

"Okay, okay," he grinned before he started looking around once more. He seemed to think long and hard about what his choice would be, which meant that it had to be a good one. Then, he said, "I spy with my little optic something…brown."

I frowned a little as I looked around the bay, searching for this elusive brown color that he mentioned. Shockingly enough, I saw nothing that even remotely resembled that color. Not even Rhinox was around to be said color!

"Uh, Cheetor? I don't see anything brown," I frowned at him.

He smirked at that. "So you give up?" he asked smugly. I rolled my eyes before I nodded, knowing that this had to be the shortest round that we've had so far. "It's your optics!"

A blink was my only response to him. When it finally clicked in my head, I raised my hand to my face as it registered that my eyes were a hazel color…which was brown. "Oh you!" I huffed as I whacked him with a spare pillow I wasn't using at the moment. "You used the same trick I did!"

"Yeah. What're you gonna do about it?" he smiled innocently, giving an almost Cheshire Cat grin. My response was to throw the pillow at him, which stuck with a quiet '_poff!_' in the face that just made him laugh.

Before he could retaliate, a familiar form lumbered in with one arm carrying some supplies while the other held a data-pad with what suspiciously looked like a skeletal diagram of her body. When he saw the feathers lying on the floor from previous pillows thrown at Cheetor's head, he asked, "I'm guessing you two were having fun in here?"

"I guess you could say that," Cheetor shrugged. "Not a lot we can do at the moment while she's restricted to the berth."

Rhinox nodded in understanding before he came over, setting the bandages and a strange container on a separate table-tray that was nearby. "Well, in any case, it's time to change her bandages," he told them as he moved to sterilize his hands for the coming bandage-changing. "I also wanted to try a little something to see if it'll work as good as I've read it does."

Shrugging at the cat-bot, I pulled up the back of my shirt so that he'd have access to the bandages. Though there weren't as many as before, it still covered the majority of my back and made it nearly impossible to move much without feeling some skin tugging, which he said was good as it meant my body was trying to mend itself. Still, I had to be really careful, or else I'd pull apart the skin and cause my back to start bleeding again…from what he told me had happened on the second or third day of bed-rest.

As soon as he had cut away all the used bandages, I felt a light pressure as his fingers carefully rubbed the burns. But instead of hurting, the pain was soothed and I noticed that there was a strange sticky yet wet substance left behind from his fingers. "What's that stuff?" I asked when I tried to twist my neck around to see what he was doing.

"It's honey," he explained as he dipped his hand into the container he had brought, scooping out a good glob of it before he started rubbing it into my back. "From some of the research I've done, raw organic honey is a good healing agent for burns as well as other ailments. If this works, then there's a very minimum chance of you getting any scarring on your back."

"Huh…well, my back's not hurting as much as it did earlier," I admitted in surprise. "I never knew honey was that good."

He chuckled in amusement as he did a once-over with some more honey, making sure he got every possible inch of the burn before he moved to wash the remaining goo off his fingers. "Sometimes the best cure is the simplest one," was his response before he came over and grabbed the bandages. "Now let's get you bandaged up."

Several minutes passed before he finished tying the bandages up, and as I straightened out my shirt, I noticed that my back didn't feel as stiff anymore. "Wow, that feels so much better," I said in amazement.

"Good to hear," he nodded. "How do your legs feel?"

I frowned at my legs as I wiggled my right foot. "Fine…I just really hate sitting here not being able to do anything," I grumbled, flexing my toes and shifting my legs. They were starting to fall asleep at the moment…

"At least you've got full control over your lower body, so that's a good sign," he pointed out. "You might actually be able to get up and move around the base now. Just don't do any bending or heavy lifting, alright? We don't want you tearing up your back anymore than it already is."

Cheetor grinned at the same time I did upon hearing the news. I could get out of bed now! I still had to be careful though, but finally! "Come on!" he cheered as he stood up, reaching over and carefully lifting me off the berth onto the floor. "I can show you around the base if you want so you can stretch your legs."

"Sounds good to me," I said, excited about being able to move about again. Let me tell ya, when you aren't allowed to do something, the urge to do it becomes almost irresistible. "Let's go!"

* * *

**Well, there ya have it folks! Lauren's gonna make a complete recovery~! :D And on a random note, yes, honey does indeed help with burns as well as other little infections like staph infections (wish I had known that the last two times I had them. Not fun. X-x). It has to be raw/pure organic honey, cause honey from a honey-bear bottle doesn't have all the good vitamins and such as unprocessed honey does. :(**

**Anyway, please read and review to tell me what you think, and I'll try my best to get the other chapters out as fast as I can! And thank you all for your wonderful reviews! You have no idea how much I appreciate them. ;w;**


	11. BIG AN: PLEASE READ

**Hey everyone, long time no see! School's been keeping me busy, but there's also another little factor that's been slowing down the updates.**

**I've had this story going for about a few years now, and the main plot had never really been designed. It was really just writing what came to mind, no real sense of direction of what I was really going to do or how I was going to end. So...**

**I've decided to rewrite it..._again._ XD But this time with an actual plot behind it! :3**

**To be honest, the rewrite I had done in high school was too choppy and such for my liking, and when it came to the recent chapters I posted, they ended up incorporating elements from that new plot I had come up with. The only problem with that method is that the earlier chapters don't line up that well with the new plot ideas.**

**So what does this have to do with why chapters are coming out so slowly? That's because I'm rewriting and updating the older chapters with the newest plot and writing them the way I originally envisioned it. But instead of posting them on this again, I'll probably just post it up as a new story with a new title so as to not confuse everyone. Or I'll just post a poll asking what you all think I should do. XD****...okay, I'll do the poll. XDD**

**But don't worry everyone: I'm not going to leave you guys hanging. c: So, to make it all up to you guys and to thank those that have stuck by me for so long, I decided to write a little snippet from the next chapter! :D It's more of a thank you to those that follow my story and those that take the time to read it. X3**

**So, without further ado, here's the snippet~! I don't own anyone other than the main character. -3-**

* * *

"Okay? _Okay?!_ Look where we are, kid!" Rattrap nearly shouted as he spread his arms out, indicating our surroundings. "We're in a cold, dank cave _underground_ filled with _tunnels!_Spots and Dinobutt are nowhere to be found, and to top it all off...we're lost."

Throughout his rant I had stayed silent, stunned to hear him go off on me like that. I knew that we were in a bit of a tough situation, but still...

"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "I was...just trying to help."

He stared at me for a long time, looking as though he wanted to say something. Then, with a heavy sigh, he deflated and shook his head. "Jus'...don' worry about it, kid," he said, rubbing the bridge of his '_nose_'. "Let's jus' try and find a way outta here. Who knows? Maybe we'll find Cheetor and Lizardbreath waiting for us outside."

As I nodded and started to follow him, my thoughts drifted to the events that had transpired earlier. I know Cheetor had only tried to make me feel better, and while I appreciated it...it's not worth getting in trouble over. Especially if Optimus ever found out.

_If_he found out.

We walked in silence for a little while, Rattrap's footsteps surprisingly light as he kept on his guard. Though he didn't draw his weapon, I could tell he was being extra cautious. For what reason I don't know, but I knew it couldn't be good. The tunnel we were in suddenly opened up into a wide cavern, but to my dismay there were no more tunnels.

"Aw, _what?!_" Rattrap gasped as he moved further in, moving in a circle as he scanned the walls with wide optics. "This can't be it! 'dere were no other tunnels back where we started! 'ow can we be at a dead end?!"

"M-Maybe we missed an opening somewhere," I suggested, feeling a little scared that he was starting to freak out.

"There _were_no other openings, kid," he insisted, his voice starting to take on a panicky tone. "Believe me, I scanned every nook 'n cranny with my scanners, but dere ain't nuttin' there."

I felt useless as I watched him move over to one of the walls, running his hands on the surface to try and see if there was something missing. Sighing, I made my way towards a nearby flat rock and sat down. "Dat's it," he said with a sigh, turning to press his back against the wall. "We're all gunna-"

_Click!_

"-dii_EEEEE!_" he screamed as the wall suddenly moved, the ground sinking under me as I yelped in surprise. With a resounding _"_**crash**", the wall settled back in place. Only, there was someone missing...

"Rattrap?" I called out, shifting back up to my feet. "...Rattrap? Where are you?" I got no response, nor was there any trace of his metal tail.

He was nowhere to be found.

* * *

**Hope you guys liked this! :D I'll be sure to have the poll posted and get those chapters edited as fast as I can! Hopefully I'll have time during the Fall Break to finish them up before finals. owo;**


End file.
